Horizon on the Nebra sky disc

Though the wolves (or at least the government and certain tabloids) bay for its blood, I shall sing here the praises of the BBC, for putting so much of its information on the Web, enabling me to continue appreciating Horizon even in my current TV-less state.

An executive summary of Secrets of the star disc to seduce you into reading the whole programme transcript (it doesn't take as much as the fifty minutes the programme itself lasts!):

Deep inside this ancient mine is the key to one of Europe’s biggest archaeological mysteries. It’s a story that begins with a robbery from a burial site in the dark heart of Europe. Its hero is an archaeologist with a taste for adventure. There’s even an international police hunt, an undercover sting involving agents from two countries. At its heart is one small piece of bronze.

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.