An ancient volcano blotted out the sun, killing crops. People likely reacted by making “sun stones”

Nearly five thousand years ago, hundreds of carved, disc-shaped stones were deposited in a giant pit at the Neolithic site of Vassagard on the small Danish island of Bornholm. For decades, so-called “sunstones” have puzzled researchers, but now scientists are writing in the journal Antiquity She reveals that it may have served a very specific purpose: a ritual attempt Neolithic humans To protect themselves from it Climate change And illness.

Climatologists from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Bornholm analyzed ice cores from Greenland’s ice sheets and showed that a major volcanic eruption occurred on the island 2,900 years ago. Because this roughly corresponds to the date of appearance of the Sun Stones, it means that the stones were created as part of a religious or other supernatural ritual to manipulate weather changes.

Archaeologist Rune Iversen from the University of Copenhagen, who was previously involved, said: “The inhabitants placed them in trenches that formed part of a blocked enclosure with the remains of ritual feasts in the form of animal bones, broken clay vessels and flint objects around 2900 BC.” In site excavations led by the Bornholm Museum and the National Museum, V.A statement. “The trenches were later closed.”

Speaking with Salon, Iversen brought Neolithic rituals to life by describing the elaborate ceremonies practiced by ancient humans.

“Road enclosures were large ritual gathering sites with significance to a larger community,” Iversen said. “People returned to these sites and made deposits (offerings) and in many of them we see traces of feasting indicating that many people gathered and participated in the ceremonies that took place there. I imagine that such gatherings were also socially significant and served to facilitate the social integration of the communities.”

This can be seen from the inscriptions on the stones themselves, which researchers divided into six types. There are solar motifs, which have many varieties but usually include, in the words of the authors of the study, “engraved lines (rays), including concentric circles, emanating from a circular central shape”; bands that either ascend like a ladder or follow a transverse and longitudinal pattern; Lines and strokes in geometric patterns such as patchworks and crosses, or just random; Plants. empty spaces; Numbers that cannot be classified yet.

Sun and plant shapes were the most common on sun stones. Now that we know they were made during a weather-related crisis, it makes sense.

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“Neolithic societies depended on the sun for the successful growth of their crops, and thus for the continued prosperity of the families who depended on each crop,” the authors write. “Therefore, it does not seem unreasonable to regard the inscribed stones as fertility offerings, and their deposition at Vasagård as a supplication to secure the growth of crops. The virtual absence of pictorial images in the Neolithic archaeological record of northwestern Europe highlights the exceptional nature of the stone stelae from Vasagård.”

The sunstones correspond to the decline of the so-called Funnel Beaker tradition in European Neolithic culture, or the era in which the pottery-wielding hunter-gatherers of the North began to adopt agriculture and animal husbandry for food.

“At Vassagard, the deposition of inscribed stones is associated with a change from activities centered around the bridge enclosure to new rituals taking place in small circular houses of worship within wooden palisades,” the authors write. “The effects of the climate crisis may have increased competition and conflicts at a time when the classic Funnel Beaker tradition was fading and was quickly followed by new cultural changes resulting from migrations affecting eastern, central and northern Europe and beyond.”

In addition to volcanic eruption, Northern Europeans during the Neolithic were also concerned about infectious diseases. Archaeologists and DNA scientists studying bones from the region and time have found evidence of widespread plague. And while this doesn’t seem to be reflected in the stones themselves, that doesn’t mean there aren’t more mysteries about sunstones that need cracking.

“The sunstones are quite unique, also in the European context,” Lasse Villen Sørensen, senior researcher at the Danish National Museum and co-author of the paper, said in a statement. The closest we come to similar sun worship in the Neolithic is some passage tombs in southern Scandinavia or megalithic structures such as Stonehenge in England, which some researchers associate with the sun. With the sun stones, there is no doubt in my mind.

Sorensen added: “It is simply an amazing discovery, showing that deposits honoring the sun are an ancient phenomenon, which we encounter again in southern Scandinavia during the climatic catastrophe caused by a volcanic eruption in the year 536 AD, where many large gold treasures were found and deposited.” As sacrifices.”

Iversen compared the Neolithic responses to the climate changes of their time with the climate changes that humanity is experiencing today. The latter is primarily due to human activity such as the use of fossil fuels.

“Neolithic people did not know why the sun was blocked, so they tried to deal with the situation through collective efforts to bring the sun back,” Iversen said. “If we can learn from this, perhaps we as individuals are not alone in facing climate change and challenges, and a societal effort is indeed needed today.”