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| Pic: https://www.sciencealert.com |
Vasagård is a complex religious site consisting of a dolmen and a passage grave and causewayed enclosures dated from between 3500 BC to 2700 BC...
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| Pic: http://bornholmsecrets.com |
As amazing as these sun discs are, to me even more amazing are other pieces of shale which depicted what looks like grain fields...
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| Pic: https://www.sciencealert.com |
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| Pic: https://www.sciencealert.com |
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| Pic: https://www.sciencealert.com |
You can read more about these stones in "Recent finds of Neolithic miniature rock art on the island of Bornholm – including topographic motifs" by Flemming Kaul, Jens Andresen and Michael S. Thorsen
It is a distinct possibility that these stones were a kind of prayer stones. They were found in ditches containing broken pottery, burned bones...Indicating that they were ritually deposited...
You can see more excavation pictures on this Facebook page.
But why did people make these stones? And why were they ritually deposited in the rings of ditches that surround the sacred enclosure? And why were they made and ritually deposited specifically during the period between 2900BC-2700BC?
Maybe this can point us to one possible explanation. The Greenland Ice Cores provide a temperature record for the last 5,000 years.
Look at this chart of polar temperatures...Look at the period between 3000BC and 2500BC...The temperatures are rapidly dropping...This is not a very good thing for grain farmers in the north of Europe...
Now compare this with Early medieval cooling and the Little ice age. Both catastrophic weather event which froze the north of Europe...Did this happen around 2900BC too?
Were sun and field stones part of the rituals in which people prayed to the sun to shine again and heat their frozen fields? I think that's quite possible...
To see how bad that sudden drop in temperature could have been, can be seen from the effect early medieval cooling period had on Scandinavia: "The long, harsh Fimbul winter is not a myth. Probably half of Norway and Sweden’s population died. Researchers now know more and more about the catastrophic year of 536."
That my hunch about the weather change being the trigger for the appearance of the sun and field stones is probably correct can be seen by the fact that at around 2800 BC there is a sudden change in religious practices...
Old enclosures, which were aligned with solstices, were filled in and curious "woodhenges" appear...
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| Pic: https://ifrglobal.org |
Archaeologists say that "something happened" which caused this change. That "something" could be the fact that the sun lost its power...
To understand what was happening at Vasagård between 2900BC and 2700BC we need to look at another archaeological site from Bornholm from the same period where sun stones were also found. Rispebjerg.
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| Pic: http://bornholmsecrets.com |
The site looks almost identical in its layout to Vasagard. The fenced area originates from the Funnel Beaker Culture, 2900-2700 BC...
Apart form slate sun discs, several clay sun discs were found in both Vasagård and Rispebjerg. The clay disk to the far left is from Vasagård - the other clay slices are all found at Rispebjerg...These were definitely amulets designed to face forward (hence two string holes)...
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| Pic: www.naturstyrelsen.dk |
A colonnade entrance?
Around the excavated wood hinges on Rispebjerg, burned clay layers were found, which looked like they had fallen from the sky. This was interpreted as the remains of a fallen clay-clad platforms which were supported by the posts of the "woodhenges"... This would make posts leading to the "woodhenge" being the support for the stairwell leading to the platform...
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| Pic: www.naturstyrelsen.dk |
These platforms probably held sacred sacrificial fires were cattle were sacrificed, as is evident by many burned cattle bones found in centres of "woodhenges"...
These structures intended to "raise the fire towards the sky" could be another proof that people at that time tried desperately to rekindle the sun...
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| Pic: www.naturstyrelsen.dk |
Maybe this is where (when) we need to look for the origin of the Yule log ceremonies... People's fear that sun's fire will be extinguished unless humans helped to preserve it was real... And probably triggered by the real event of sun getting cold...
Interestingly if we look at the list of weather events, we find something called "The Piora Oscillation". This was an abrupt cold and wet period generally dated to the period of c. 3200-2800. It was "wetter in Europe and drier elsewhere"...
So the climate didn't just get colder it got wetter. What is interesting is that one of the "offerings" found in Bornholm "woodhenges" were burned flint axes...
When flint is heated it explodes with loud bangs. Archaeologists are saying these were kind of Neolithic firecrackers 🙂 If you think that modern bangers are dangerous think again. Imagine exploding flint axes spirting razor sharp flakes everywhere...
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| Pic: www.naturstyrelsen.dk |
Strangely, flint is not found on the Island of Bornholm. The nearest sources of flint to Bornholm are over 100 kilometres away. Across the sea.
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| Pic: www.naturstyrelsen.dk |
Which means that these were extremely precious objects which were not lightly chucked into fire.
By the way the same burned flint axes were found in Vasagård too...
So why did these people make flint axe bangers? Was it just for show?
What I find super interesting is that flint axes were by Slavs connected with Perun, the thunder god. Slavs believed that they were petrified lightning bolts...
I always thought that this linking of flint axes to Thunder god was a recent development. I proposed that it was not any stone axes which were believed to be petrified lighting bolts. It was specifically flint axes I explained this link through the fact that flint was once used for creating sparks for kindling fire...It was a source of man made lighting. Hence the belief that flint was a petrified, solidified lightning...But from this exploding axes ritual, I now believe that this link between flint, and specifically flint axes and Thunder god originated in Neolithic...
Exploding flint axes all of a sudden make a lot of sense as part of religious ceremony during catastrophic cold and wet weather event in Middle Neolithic...
It is funny that it is only Slavs who preserved this link between flint axes and their thunder god, Perun...
I talked about this link in my post "Axe of Martin"...
Add to this all the burned cattle bones found in "woodhenges" and "cattle sacrifices" (killing, roasting and eating of bulls) which Slavs performed to Perun...As part of harvest ceremonies...
Another ancient religious belief (ceremony) preserved by Slavs???
This is all very peculiar...
Ancient Chinese put bamboo into fires to crack loudly due to pressure on New Year holiday. Later firecrackers were used.
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