The German Stonehenge

Goseck has been around for a while, the real find was the Nebra disk (the photo is upside down incidentally) which is not only a star chart but is also thought to predict Lunar eclipse. When the Pleiades, the cluster of stars at the upper center, are in the southeast quadrant of the moon at quarter phase, a lunar eclipse will occur shortly after.

NERA incidentally is a problematic organization. I am familiar with many of its members and they are mostly amateurs, diehard diffusionists and romantics looking for evidence of Irish Monks, prehistoric Celts and Vikings in pre-Columbian New England. There is real evidence of a slight Scandinavian presence in northeast North America in the 11th and 12th century but these folks so muddy the water that no one wants to touch the subject. I had one member (elderly and since deceased) claim that native American astronomical observatories, such as the one a Cahokia could be explained by communication with prehistoric Europe (we are collapsing 3 millennia here) The means were certain species of flowers that bloomed at the same time in both Europe and North America and therefore must be in contact with one another to coordinate their bloom. Ancient people could then use this contact to transmit messages to one another. I had a number of letters from him on this subject. To be fair, not all, or even most NERA members are this wacked, but it has it's share.

That report was an exact reprint from the same day's Deutsche Welle report.

The silly season in German media has been without surprise last year - people didn't want to read only about the hottest summer since weather reports had been written ....

However, if we'll really meet next year here, we'll certainly visit the Externsteine - about 30 miles away from us. :wink: