7,000-year-old Neolithic settlement in Greece dated accurately to the year thanks to cosmic rays

Amazing stuff!

"... The findings could provide a reference point in time to help date other archaeological sites in southeastern Europe. ...

“Until recently, it was therefore believed that dendrochronological dating to the year was only possible if a continuous regional tree-ring chronology was available, which is the case for prehistoric periods in just 3 regions worldwide: this is the southwestern United States, the northern Alpine foothills and England/Ireland,”  ...

But in 2012, Japanese physicist Fusa Miyake suggested that a massive influx of cosmic rays, such as those produced by solar flares, would increase the amount of 14C in the atmosphere. ...

These global events in history could be used as “markers” in tree rings. Dozens have been identified, including 2 discovered in 2022: one in 7176 BCE and another in 5259 BCE.

Using the latter of these markers, the archaeologists analysed 787 pieces of timber from Dispilio on Lake Orestida in what is today northern Greece.

They identified 303 years of growth ring chronology for the region and could show settlement and housebuilding at the site over 188 years between 5328 and 5140 BCE. ..."

From the abstract:

"Abrupt radiocarbon (14C) excursions, or Miyake events, in sequences of radiocarbon measurements from calendar-dated tree-rings provide opportunities to assign absolute calendar dates to undated wood samples from contexts across history and prehistory. Here, we report a tree-ring and 14C-dating study of the Neolithic site of Dispilio, Northern Greece, a waterlogged archaeological site on Lake Kastoria. Findings secure an absolute, calendar-dated time using the 5259 BC Miyake event, with the final ring of the 303-year-long juniper tree-ring chronology dating to 5140 BC. While other sites have been absolutely dated to a calendar year through 14C-signature Miyake events, Dispilio is the first European Neolithic site of these and it provides a fixed, calendar-year anchor point for regional chronologies of the Neolithic."

7,000-year-old Neolithic settlement in Greece dated accurately to the year thanks to cosmic rays A 7,000-year-old Neolithic settlement in modern-day Greece has for the first time been accurately dated down to the precise years it was built.

Absolute dating of the European Neolithic using the 5259 BC rapid 14C excursion (open access)

Fig. 1: Location of the archaeological site of Dispilio and detailed view of the trench analysed.

Fig. 2: Archaeological finds from Neolithic Dispilio.