Michael McCormick of Harvard University said he knows what year in human history is “one of the worst periods.” According to the scientist, this is not 1349, famous for the grandiose plague epidemic, and also not 1918, when the Spanish flu caused the death of 100 million people. McCormick is sure that there was nothing worse than 536. So what happened almost fifteen hundred years ago?
In 536, a mysterious fog covered most of the planet. For 18 months in Europe and Asia there was only one time of day – twilight. This is how the Byzantine author Procopius of Caesarea describes that “terrible” time: “The sun shone like the Moon, without rays, all year, as if it had lost its strength.” At the same time, Procopius himself was more inclined to believe that prolonged twilight is a “greatest miracle”, and not a natural disaster.
True, the inhabitants of many countries affected by the “Sun that shone like the Moon” would certainly not agree with the Byzantine author. Thus, the air temperature in the summer months dropped to 1.5-2.5 degrees, which naturally affected the harvest. Snow fell in China, causing 80% of the population of the northern part of the country to die of starvation. However, food problems did not end even after the end of 536. The next decade turned out to be the coldest in the world for several thousand years.
Scientists led by McCormick, who carefully studied this phenomenon, came to the conclusion that one of the volcanoes in Iceland is “to blame” for everything. As a result of a strong eruption, clouds of ash fell into the atmosphere, “blocking” the sunlight. This was established thanks to the analysis of ice layers from the Colle Nifetti glacier in Switzerland.
Approximately the same eruptions in effect were repeated in 540 and 547. Microparticles containing sulfur and bismuth again literally “wrapped” the sky over Europe. Once again, “hungry periods” began in the world, but in terms of duration, as well as the degree of damage, they, of course, could not be compared with the famine of 536, the most terrible and “dark” period in the history of mankind.
