Almost five millennia ago, hundreds of engraved, disc-shaped stones were deposited in a giant pit at the Neolithic Vasagård site on the small Danish island of Bornholm. For decades the so-called “sun stones” mystified researchers, but now scientists report in the journal Antiquity reveal that they may have served a very specific purpose: A ritualistic attempt by Neolithic humans to protect themselves from climate change and disease.
Climate scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Bornholm analyzed ice cores from Greenland’s ice sheets and demonstrated that a major volcanic eruption occurred on the island 2,900 years ago. Because this roughly corresponds with the date of the sun stones, it follows that the stones would have been created as part of a religious or other supernatural ritual to address the weather changes.
