About five thousand years ago, hundreds of inscribed, disc-shaped stones were deposited in a large pit at the Neolithic Vasagard site on the small Danish island of Bornholm. For decades, so-called “sunstones” have mystified researchers, but now scientists report in the journal ancient shows that they served a very specific purpose: a ritualistic attempt by Neolithic humans to protect themselves from climate change and disease.
Climate scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Bornholm analyzed ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet and showed that a large volcano erupted on the island 2,900 years ago. Since this roughly matches the date of the Sun Stones, it suggests that the stones may have been created as part of a religious or other supernatural ritual to deal with the changes of the seasons.
“Inhabitants deposited them in pits that date to around 2,900 BC along with the remains of ritual feasts in the form of animal bones, broken pottery and flint,” said Ronne Iverson, an archaeologist at the University of Copenhagen. Due to reason the dams become part of the wall.” In an excavation of the site led by the Museum of Bornholm and the National Museum, one said statement. “The pits were later closed.”
Speaking with Salon, Iversen brought the new stool rituals to life by describing the elaborate ceremonies practiced by ancient humans.
“Therefore, it does not seem unreasonable to regard the engraved stones as offering fertility.”
“The causeway enclosures were large ceremonial gathering places that had significance for a larger community,” Iverson said. “People returned to these sites and collected (prasad) and at many of these sites we see signs of feasting, which shows that many people gathered and participated in the ceremonies that took place there. I imagine that such gatherings were also of social importance and served to facilitate the social integration of communities.
This can be seen from the engravings on the stones themselves, which the researchers have divided into six types. There are sun shapes, of which there are many types but typically include, as the study’s authors say, “striated lines (rays), including concentric circles, emanating from a circular central figure”; Bands that either run up like a ladder or follow a transverse and longitudinal pattern. Lines and strokes in geometric patterns such as patchwork and crosses, or simply being random; plant spaces; and data that cannot yet be classified.
Sun and plant motifs were by far the most common on sun stones. Now that we know they were built during climate-related crises, it makes sense.
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“Neolithic societies depended on the sun for the successful growth of their crops and thus the continued prosperity of each crop-dependent family,” the authors write. used to.” “Therefore, it does not seem unreasonable to regard the inscribed stones as offerings of fertility, their deposit at Vasagard to secure the growth of crops. is the virtual absence of symbolic imagery in the archaeological record of the Northwest European Neolithic stone tablets from Vasagard. highlights the extraordinary nature of
The sunstones correspond to the decline of the so-called funnel-beaker tradition in European Neolithic culture, or the period when pottery-using hunter-gatherers in the north adopted farming and domestication for food. started
“The assemblage of inscribed stones at Vasgard is associated with a shift from activities centered on causeway enclosures to new rituals taking place in small, circular cult houses within wooden palisades,” the authors write. “The effects of the climate crisis may increase competition and conflict at a time when the classical Fennelbaker tradition is disintegrating and will soon result in migration to Eastern, Central and Northern Europe and beyond. New cultural changes will follow.”
In addition to volcanic eruptions, northern Europeans would have worried about infectious disease in the early days. Archaeologists and DNA scientists have studied bones from the region and time, finding evidence of a massive plague. Even though it doesn’t appear on the stones themselves, that doesn’t mean there aren’t more mysteries about sunstones that need to be cracked.
“The Sun Stones are completely unique, even in a European context,” Lasse Willien Sorensen, a senior researcher at the National Museum of Denmark and co-author of the research paper, said in a statement. The closest we get are some passage tombs in southern Scandinavia or henge structures like Stonehenge in England, which some researchers associate with the sun. With the Sun Stones, there’s no doubt in my mind.”
Sørensen added, “This is an absolutely incredible discovery, showing that the expression of sun worship is an ancient phenomenon, similar to the climate we experience in southern Scandinavia from a volcanic eruption in 536 AD. Again during the destruction of the wind, where several large hoards of gold were recovered, they were collected as sacrifices.
Iversen compares Neolithic responses to the climate changes of their time with humanity’s own climate changes today. The latter are mainly caused by human activities such as the use of fossil fuels.
“Neolithic people didn’t know why the sun was covered so they tried to manage the situation with a communal effort to bring the sun back,” Iverson said. “If we can learn from this, it may be that we as individuals are not alone in facing climate change and challenges and that a communal effort is needed today.”
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