Stone tablets with the shape of the sun found on the island of Bornholm, Denmark
Antiquities Publications/John Lee, National Museum of Denmark
Hundreds of mysterious engraved “sun stones” dug up in Denmark may have been ceremoniously buried after a volcanic eruption caused the Sun to disappear around 2900 BC.
A total of 614 stone plaques and fragments of plaques engraved with decorative motifs of the sun or plants have been found in recent years. Vasgaard West Archaeological Site On the Danish island of Bornholm. They were found in a layer dating back to about 4900 years ago, when Neolithic people were farming in the area and building earthen enclosures from banks and ditches.
Most of the carved sun stones were found in ditches surrounding these enclosures and were covered with stone pavements containing fragments of pottery and other objects. The pottery is typical of the Late Funnel Beaker culture, which existed in the region from about 2900 to 2800 BC.
Originally it was proposed that the stone carving of the sun be buried to ensure a good harvest. Says the Sun was the focal point for early agricultural cultures in Northern Europe rune iverson At the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
“But why did they submit all these photos at the same time?” asks Iverson. “The last thing they basically did here was collect these sun stones and then cover them with pieces of animal bones, all the artifacts and that kind of thing. And we see it happening from trench to trench. So, it is a kind of action or event.
Now, he and his colleagues have the answer. They looked at data from ice cores extracted in Greenland and Antarctica and found high concentrations of sulphate, which had accumulated in the years following volcanic eruptions in the period around 2900 BC.
The researchers say the relative proportions of sulphate deposition in Greenland and Antarctica suggest that the eruption was somewhere close to the equator, and that its impact covered a vast area. Ash clouds block the sun, causing temperatures to drop for years.
A period of severe cooling around 2900 BC is confirmed by sources including tree rings in preserved wood from the Main River Valley in Germany and long-lived bristlecone pines in the western US.
This eruption would be devastating for the Neolithic people of Northern Europe. “If you don’t have a crop and you don’t get a harvest, you won’t have anything to plant the next year,” says Iverson. “They must have felt very punished at that time because this is an endless disaster coming upon them.”
He and his colleagues say the burial of the carvings may have been an attempt to bring back the sun or a celebration after the sky cleared.
“That’s a good explanation,” says jens vinther johansson In Roskilde Museum in Denmark. “You can be sure that tough farming societies will have to rely on the sun.”
lars larson Lund University in Sweden asked why we only have evidence of such behavior on Bornholm, and not elsewhere in southern Scandinavia, if the climate effect was widespread.
This may be because the people there had abundant hard stone – slate – on which they carved sun images, but much of southern Scandinavia is mostly clay, so there are less suitable stones for carving. Iverson says. “They may also have carved pieces of wood or leather elsewhere, but these generally would not have been preserved,” he says.
Alternatively, it may reflect cultural differences, says Johansson. “These societies are not isolated, but you are more isolated on an island, which is why they have developed a unique practice and culture.”
Subject:
(tagstotranslate)archaeology
