Hundreds of stone artifacts discovered on a Danish island may have been offered to the gods to ward off a climate crisis.

While scientists do not have any similar written sources of eruptions from Neolithic times–about 10,000 to 2,000 BCE–they do have ice cores. These long time capsules that are brought up from glaciers can show millions of years of climate history.

Volcanic eruptions shaped the destinies of ancient European societies, leading to dramatic cultural shifts and the emergence of sun worship practices among Neolithic communities. Archaeological findings,

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.