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A volcanic eruption in 2910 B.C. may be the reason Neolithic people on a small island in the Baltic Sea bury C of stones decorate with industrial plant and sunlight imagery , archaeologists suggest in a new study .
" We have known for a long sentence that the Sunday was the focal distributor point for the early agricultural cultures we hump of in Northern Europe,“Rune Iversen , an archeologist at the University of Copenhagen , said in astatement . These Stone " were belike sacrifice to see sun and emergence . "
Two of the sun stones, small pieces of shale etched with a sun motif.
In a study published Thursday ( Jan. 16 ) in the journalAntiquity , Iversen and colleagues detailed the find of 614 rock brass and plaque fragments on the Danish island of Bornholm , located south of Sweden in the Baltic Sea . The objective were found break up throughout a palisade ditch . free-base on the clayware style and theradiocarbondates from charcoal find nearby , the researchers concluded that the decorated stones were deliberately localize there around 2900 B.C.
The Brobdingnagian majority of the stone plaque were made from ignominious shale — a dismal , flaky aqueous rock candy found on the island — while others were made from vitreous silica and Flint River . Most of the plaques were also adorn with incise design , including sun and plant motifs .
Although a handful of these " sun stone " have been rule on Bornholm previously , the gravid number of them find in one place spurred the investigator to attempt a potential reason for the unequalled deposit .
(Image credit: Iversen et al. / Antiquity Publications Ltd.)
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An archeological section through a ditch where most of the engrave stones were found in the Neolithic Bornholm site .
Engraved stones , pottery and adorn daub from Neolithic Bornholm .
(Image credit: Iversen et al. / Antiquity Publications Ltd.)
Stone plaques with discipline and plant motifs found at a Neolithic site on Bornholm .
Drawing of a clay disc with a sun motif from Neolithic Bornholm .
Neolithic people appear to have bury the stones at a decisive juncture , as the researchers discovered that the area was transform into a more upstanding , fortified situation just after the stones were deposit . Perhaps a raw disaster or climatical event that caused crop to neglect triggered the stone " forfeit , " the researchers suggested in their study .
(Image credit: Iversen et al. / Antiquity Publications Ltd.)
Based on extensive evidence of prehistoric clime events , the researchers made a connexion between the burial of the stones and a volcanic bam in 2910 B.C. that almost certainly negatively feign weather and harvests across the Northern Hemisphere .
" These depositions could have been made during a clock time of stress with the intention of bringing back the sunlight and re - establishing agricultural production , " the researchers wrote in their study . " They could also have been made when the climate crisis was over , as an act of celebration for the rejoinder of the sunlight . "
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(Image credit: Iversen et al. / Antiquity Publications Ltd.)
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After the stone deposit , a new kind of cultivation begin on Bornholm , the researchers explained in the study . People stopped building monumental grave , begin make more fortified settlements , and formed new social networks with people in Scandinavia . But the grandness of the sun may not have diminished , as Neolithic societies across Europe relied on the sun for their harvest .
" It is quite simply an unbelievable breakthrough , which establish that dethronement observe the sunshine is an ancient phenomenon , which we encounter again in South Scandinavia during the mood disaster have by a volcanic blast in the year 536 AD , " study carbon monoxide - authorLasse Vilien Sørensen , an archaeologist at the National Museum of Denmark , said in the statement .
