On my bookshelf, Professor Dr. Werner Steins's "The Great Cultural Timetable – The Most Important Dates in World History" takes pride of place. It is a unique work: over 1,900 pages, the contents are arranged chronologically and are presented as matrix structured. I did not know Professor Stein personally, but my Mother, who occasionally worked for him as his secretary during his time as Berlin's Senator for Culture and Science and the Arts. This always delighted him greatly, as she rarely failed to grasp the most remote foreign word. Later editors, however, failed to digitize this work, even though it would have been ideally suited for this purpose. For example, the treasures of this book could be accessed much more easily with a simple text search than with the magnificent, but laborious, index. Be that as it may. The copyright to the book is believed to belong to Fischer and Herbig. It will not enter the public domain until the end of 2052 at the earliest—well, that date is coming sooner than you think. Professor Stein recognized the cultural-historical significance of the emerging digital age early on. In one of his forewords (1987), he writes:
"The 'electronic revolution' is worlds apart from its predecessors (the electronic computer was invented in 1946, the transistor in 1948). The last few years are recognizable as a profound turning point, the likes of which have not been seen since the Neolithic Revolution (-10,000)."
By 1987, the personal computer had already begun its triumphant advance, and the first precursors of the Internet (e.g., ARPANET from 1969) and email communication in research circles (from the 1970s onward) were beginning to establish themselves. However, the World Wide Web, with browsers, hyperlinks, and websites, was not developed until 1989/90 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.
The Nebra Sky Disk, however, is already approximately 3,600 years old and is also an artifact that depicts the essential intellectual currents of humanity in a mere 32 cm diameter. It is a fascinating symbolic landscape with all the hallmarks of astronomy, religion, and cultural history. Image source: Wikipedia (CC0 1.0)
Representation on the disc
Sun or full moon (large golden circle).
crescent moon (narrow golden sickle).
Pleiades star cluster (Group of 7 gold points).
Stars: a total of 32 gold points, probably constellations or symbolic markings.
Horizon arches (added on the side): probably observation of the solstices (summer/winter).
Lower arch (“Sun Barque”): could symbolize the path of the sun in the underworld (mythology).
Also interesting: A congenial world design can be found in the fourth day of creation in the first chapter of Genesis.
