Editing Nebra sky disc (section)

== Discovery ==
The disc, together with two bronze [[swords]], two sets of remains of [[axe]]s, a [[chisel]], and fragments of spiral armbands were discovered in 1999 by Henry Westphal and Mario Renner while they were [[treasure-hunting]] with a metal detector. The detectorists were operating without a license and knew their activity constituted [[looting]] and was illegal. Archaeological artefacts are the property of the state in Saxony-Anhalt. They damaged the disc with their spade and destroyed parts of the site. The next day, Westphal and Renner sold the entire hoard for 31,000&nbsp;[[Deutsche Mark|DM]] to a dealer in [[Cologne]]. The hoard changed hands, probably several times, within Germany during the next two years, being sold for up to a million&nbsp;DM. By 2001 knowledge of its existence had become public.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In February 2002, the state archaeologist, Harald Meller, acquired the disc in a police-led sting operation in [[Basel]] from a couple who had put it on the [[black market]] for 700,000&nbsp;DM.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Meller, H.|date=January 2004|title=Star search|journal=National Geographic|pages=76–8}}</ref> The original finders were eventually traced. In a plea bargain, they led police and archaeologists to the discovery site. Archaeologists opened a dig at the site and uncovered evidence that supported the looters' claims. There were traces of bronze artefacts in the ground, and the [[soil]] at the site matched soil samples found clinging to the artefacts. The disc and its accompanying finds are held by the [[Halle State Museum of Prehistory|State Museum of Prehistory]] in [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]], [[Saxony-Anhalt]], [[Germany]].

The two looters received sentences of four months and ten months, respectively, from a [[Naumburg]] court in September 2003. They appealed, but the Appeals Court raised their sentences to six and twelve months, respectively.

The discovery site is a [[prehistory|prehistoric]] [[Enclosure (archaeology)|enclosure]] encircling the top of a {{convert|252|m}} elevation in the [[:de:Ziegelrodaer Forst|Ziegelroda Forest]], known as {{lang|de|Mittelberg}} ("central hill"), some {{convert|60|km}} west of [[Leipzig]]. The surrounding area is known to have been settled in the [[Neolithic]] era, and Ziegelroda Forest contains approximately 1,000 [[tumulus|barrows]].

At the enclosure's location, the sun seems to set every summer [[solstice]] behind the [[Brocken]], the highest peak of the [[Harz]] mountains, some {{convert|80|km}} to the northwest. The treasure hunters claimed the artefacts were discovered within a pit inside the bank-and-ditch enclosure.