An interpretation of the `Sky Disc of Nebra´ as an icon for a bronze age planetarium mechanism with parallels to the moving world soul in Plato's Timaeus

Abstract

Analysis of the geometry and the internal symmetries of the bronze age Sky Disc of Nebra unseals a highly sophisticated mathematical design that could be interpreted as an icon for a planetarium mechanism to simulate the spatial and temporal aspects of the solar year and the visibility of the Pleiades during the seasons as described by Hesiod. The artistic world construction of the Sky Disc of Nebra is based on mathematical principles similar to the principles for the design of the moving world-soul in Plato's Timaeus.