Using ice core samples, researchers linked a natural disaster with a trove of nearly 5,000-year-old artifacts discovered at an archaeological site in Denmark

Sacrifices of “sun stones” occurred around the same time a volcanic eruption in 2900 BC dimmed the sun throughout Northern Europe, according to a new study.

The sun stones correspond with the decline of the so-called Funnel Beaker tradition in European Neolithic culture, or the era in which the pottery-using hunter-gatherers in the north began to adopt farming and husbandry for food.

According to the team, there is a high chance that a connection exists between the volcanic eruption, the subsequent changes in climate, and the ritual sun stone sacrifices. In addition to a deteriorating climate, Northern European Neolithic cultures were also affected by the plague and a major shift in cultural traditions.

About 4,900 years ago, a Neolithic people on the Danish island Bornholm sacrificed hundreds of stones engraved with sun and field motifs. Archaeologists and climate scientists from the University of Copenhagen can now show that these ritual sacrifices coincided with a large volcanic eruption that made the sun disappear throughout Northern Europe.

Scientists Say a Massive Volcanic Eruption 4900 Years Ago May Have Trigged Strange Sacrifices of ‘Sun Stones' Archaeologists and climate scientists from the University of Copenhagen provided evidence of ritual sacrifices that collided with the massive volcanic eruption that made the sun disappear throughout Northern Europe.