(CNN)The Nebra sky disc, one of Germany's most heralded prehistoric artifacts, is often considered the world's oldest depiction of the cosmos. For a relatively small object -- the gold-speckled disc is only 12 inches wide -- it has produced a large amount of controversy.
In fact, the Nebra sky disc's sordid history reads like a Dan Brown novel, involving looters, court hearings, conflict between archaeologists and even allegations of revenge.
The sky disc was reportedly unearthed in 1999 near the town of Nebra, Germany, by looters who sold it to black-market dealers. It was recovered by law enforcement several years later, and the looters were prosecuted in court. Today, it's exhibited in the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle.
But there were inconsistencies in the looters' stories about how they acquired the artifact. And experts continue to debate the exact origins and history of the disc, which is widely considered to be from the Bronze Age, about 3,600 years ago.
Now, the saga continues as a new analysis has suggested the Nebra sky disc could be about 1,000 years younger than previously thought.
Based on analysis of the soil attached to the disc and the iconography of its decorations, two scientists concluded that the artifact is more likely to be from the Iron Age, dating between about 2,800 and 2,050 years ago. The study published this month in the German journal Archaeological Information.
A questionable find
The authors of the study, Rupert Gebhard, director of the Bavarian Archaeological State Collection in Munich, and Rüdiger Krause, professor of prehistory and early European history at Goethe University Frankfurt, argued the exact location of the disc's discovery might not be the Mittelberg hill near Nebra, Germany -- the spot where one looter directed authorities.