Cosmic rays shed light on 7,000-year-old Greek village

A powerful cosmic ray caused a spike in radiocarbon levels in a region of Greece in 5259 BC .

According to SciTech Daily, a research team from the University of Bern (Switzerland) used the method of measuring the amount of radioactive carbon spikes in tree rings due to the impact of cosmic rays to determine the age of a Greek settlement. Prehistoric Greece is more than 7,000 years ago.

This new method promises to open a door to allow accurate dating of many other archaeological sites in Southeast Europe.

Field of stakes at Dispilio with 800 wooden stakes from the ancient settlement. These tree trunks used as wooden stakes accidentally recorded detailed effects of cosmic rays more than 7,000 years ago - (Photo: BERN UNIVERSITY).

The Greek village mentioned above - named Dispilio - was found a long time ago and provides evidence of one of the oldest agricultural settlements in the area.

But when did people here start to know how to cultivate agriculture the way we do today is still an interesting puzzle.

In Europe, some locations can be identified using tree-ring dating, which shows changing climate patterns, but not everywhere, according to lead author Andrej Maczkowski from the Academy of Sciences. archeology from the University of Bern.

However, there is something else that tree rings can also record, which is the carbon isotope 14C from cosmic rays. Plants absorb this while alive and stop absorbing it when dead.

Looking for tree rings "drenched" in this isotope and looking at how it decays over time could help find when cosmic rays hit Earth.

By comparing how long this tree lived and how it was used in wooden constructions, one will know the date of the settlement.

The team from the EXPLO project led by the University of Bern succeeded in establishing a 303-year annual growth cycle chronology, ending in 5140 BC, by analyzing 787 pieces of wood from Dispilio archaeological site on Lake Orestida in Northern Greece.

Identified settlement periods show varying house-building activity over 188 years, from 5328 to 5140 BC.

The basis for these data is a major geomagnetic transformation event - due to the impact of cosmic rays - in 5259 BC.

"We hope that other regional dates from this period can now be rapidly linked to the Dispilio Chronology . This paves the way for regional chronology for the southern Balkans." - said the authors.

The Balkans have the oldest lakeside settlements in Europe, sites dating to just after 6000 BC. This region played an important role in the expansion of agriculture in prehistoric Europe, contributing to today's civilization.