The discovery of abrupt radiocarbon (14C) excursions (Solar Energetic Particle events, or Miyake events) in sequences of radiocarbon measurements from calendar dated tree-rings, has yielded new opportunities to assign absolute, calendar dates to undated wood samples from widely ranging contexts in history and prehistory. We report on an important tree-ring and 14C-dating based study, which secures the Neolithic site of Dispilio, Northern Greece, a key site for the Aegean Neolithic, in absolute, calendar-dated time using the Miyake event of 5259 BC. The last ring of the 303-year-long juniper tree-ring chronology from Dispilio is dated to 5140 BC. Dispilio is thus the first prehistoric site absolutely dated through a 14C signature (Miyake event), but also the first absolutely, calendar-year dated prehistoric site in the wider Mediterranean region.
