Documentary Description
This is the extraordinary story of how a small metal disc is
rewriting the epic saga of how civilisation first came to Europe, 3600
years ago.
When grave robbers ransacked a Bronze Age tomb in Germany, they had
no idea that they had unearthed the find of a lifetime. But they knew
that it was worth selling. It was a small bronze disc of exquisite
design. So they contacted the archaeologist Harald Meller, offering to
sell it to him for £300,000.
Meller went deep into the criminal underworld and, after a police
sting, he got his disc. It depicted the sun, the moon and the stars.
This suggested an understanding of the heavens greater than that of the
first great civilisations, like Egypt. Could it possibly be real?
After exhaustive tests, the disc was declared genuine. Then a team
of crack scientists pieced together what it meant. What emerged is a
true marvel.
This disc, it seems, is a Bronze Age Bible, combining an advanced
understanding of the stars with some of the most sophisticated
religious imagery of the age. In intellectual achievement and also age,
it surpasses anything yet found in Egypt or Greece. It seems that
civilisation had already dawned in Europe.
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