Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and other institutions suggest that Denmark’s Neolithic “sun stones,” engraved shale plaques with sun and field motifs, were likely sacrificial offerings to ensure fertility and sunlight during a climate crisis triggered by a massive volcanic eruption around 2900 B.C. Analysis of Greenland ice cores revealed the eruption caused cold weather and poor crop yields, prompting Neolithic farmers on Bornholm to use these artifacts, along with animal bones and broken pottery, in rituals. More than 600 sun stones were unearthed during archaeological excavations at Vasagård (Bornholm) and are classified as Neolithic miniature art. The shift in climate may have also led to changes in sacred architecture, with palisades and circular cult houses replacing sacrificial ditches.
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