Neolithic people buried hundreds of stones carved with images of the sun about 4900 years ago and they may have done it because a volcanic eruption covered the sky
By Chris Simms
16 January 2025
Stone plaques with sun motifs found on Bornholm island, Denmark
Antiquity Publications/John Lee, National Museum of Denmark
Hundreds of mysterious engraved “sun stones” unearthed in Denmark may have been ceremonially buried because a volcanic eruption in about 2900 BC made the sun disappear.
A total of 614 stone plaques and fragments of plaques engraved with decorative motifs of the sun or plants have been unearthed in recent years at the Vasagård West archaeological site on the Danish island of Bornholm. They were found in a layer that dates to some 4900 years ago, when Neolithic people were farming the area and building enclosures encircled by earthworks of banks and ditches.
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Most of the carved sun stones were found in the ditches around these enclosures and they had been covered by a stone pavement containing bits of pottery and other items. The pottery is typical of the late Funnel Beaker culture, which was present in this region until about 2900 to 2800 BC.
It was originally proposed that the stone carvings of the sun were buried to ensure good harvests. The sun was the focal point for early agricultural cultures in northern Europe, says Rune Iversen at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
“But why have they deposited all these images at the same time?” asks Iversen. “The last thing that they basically did here was depositing these sun stones and then covering them with pieces of animal bone, all the artefacts and stuff like that. And we see that reoccurring from ditch to ditch. So, it is kind of an act or an event.”