A wealth of stones have been discovered during an archaeological excavation on the Danish island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea. The small stones are covered in motifs carved by Stone Age people some 5,000 years ago.
A Stone Age sunstone found on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea [Credit: Arkspedition2014vv] |
The latter are an entirely new discovery, and scientists do not yet know what they were used for.
Were they a religious coinage? Amulets? Or were they used to mark the transition from an old burial tradition to a new one? Or was it something else entirely?
“That is the million dollar question. We see sun motifs in other places, but the square-shaped stones with farming symbols are especially strange. It’s impossible to know precisely what they were used for,” says Lars Larsson, professor emeritus at the University of Lund, Sweden.
Were they lucky charms?
The stones were found in southern Bornholm at a place called Vasagård. This was a gigantic area divided into two by a river valley, and looks to have been used for rituals during the Stone Age.
Examples of field stones. The middle stone was found in 2014, and was the first known sun stone. The stone is interpreted as depicting an enclosed field [Credit: Bornholms Museum] |
Some of the stones even look to have been used as lucky charms by Stone Age Bornholmers.
“Many of the sun stones and one of the field stones are very worn, so it looks as though someone has run around with them in their pocket,” says Finn Ole Sonne Nielsen, lead archaeologist at the Bornholm Museum, who has collaborated with the National Museum of Denmark, Aarhus University, and the University of Copenhagen, on the excavation.
Vasagård: An important building project
The Vasagård area exhibits the appearance of a Stone Age society, which had be “thoroughly ritualised,” says Nielsen.
Map of Vasagård [Credit: Bornholm Museum] |
The construction has been renewed time and time again, and many tons of wood must have been used to maintain the gigantic monument. An “absolutely important” construction project, says Nielsen.
“When you use so many resources on something, it must have something to do with religion,” he says.
Represents transition between life and death
The first sun stone was found in 1995 at another cultural site, Rispebjerg, around eight kilometres east of Vasagård. But in the meantime, Vasagård has far exceeded her sister-site in terms of the number of these strange stones.
Archaeologists have so far found 10 'spiderweb' stones [Credit: René Laursen, Bornholm Museum] |
But saying they were used in rituals doesn’t tell us much, says Larsson.
“But it must mean something that they were deposited simultaneously after being burnt and broken. Perhaps it represents a transition between life and death,” he says.
Death was a natural part of life
Fire was very important for Stone Age people who burnt many items, such as axes or animal bones. The fire didn’t represent destruction but a transition, says Larsson.
Field-stone (left) and sun-stone (right) [Credit: René Laursen, Bornholm Museum] |
Stone Age people probably had an entirely different relationship to death and their ancestors than we do today, and death was considered as a natural part of life, says Larsson.
Helps to understand worship practices
The sun stones and field stones most likely were located close to each other because they were used in the same ritual.
System grave excavated at Vasagård [Credit: Bornholms Museum] |
On many of the stones, there is something illustrated alongside the fields that resembles a plant covered with some kind of shade. Kaul interprets it as a form of protection for grain in the field.
He thought that the stone could be used in a form of ritual around harvest time or the solstices.
“I imagine that at a certain time of the year you had some magic rituals where you held a sun stone and let them pass over the stones, which by all accounts depict fields. The new stone opens up an entirely different understanding of the Stone Age worship of deities,” says Kaul.
Author: Charlotte Price Persson | Source: ScienceNordic [December 18, 2017]