Archaeologists have dated the lakefront Neolithic (7000–3200 b.c.) settlement of Dispilio in northern Greece using a method that involves detecting evidence of bursts of cosmic radiation in ancient wood samples. In 2012, physicist Fusa Miyake first identified sudden spikes in the level of radioactive carbon-14 in tree rings that could be attributed to bombardment by cosmic rays at precisely known points in the past. A handful of these spikes, called Miyake Events, which allow wood samples to be dated to a single year, can be identified in tree rings dating back as far as 12,350 b.c.A team including University of...