Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’

sciencemag.org

50 points·eplanit··4 comments

And I thought I was having a bad day! Thank you for sharing this article. Does anyone have any good sources that explore life during this time period? Surely people would have seen this as a cataclysmic, world-ending event. I'm curious as to what this did to cultures and myths and whatnot at the time.

Here's one article I could find with quotes from historical documents:

https://www.thoughtco.com/dust-veil-environmental-disaster-i...

The wikipedia article also has some additional sources and information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_weather_events_of_535%...

The reference sections at the bottom of each of those pages are full with further sources that may help answer your question.

As an aside, OP's comment was voted dead. For asking an on-topic question. Seriously HN?

Thanks for sending these. It's incredible that even societies that lived as far away as Peru were affected by this. It amazes me that civilization in any form could move on past something like this.

The "Tides of History" podcast covers this period in Episode 13 in relation to the fall of the Roman Empire.

https://wondery.com/shows/tides-of-history/

It particularly focuses on the experiences of the average person in Italy, which not only suffered plague and failing crops, but was being torn apart during a long period of warfare between the Romans and the Goths.

Rome itself was largely abandoned in this period, leaving a very small population, the aqueducts were destroyed during sieges, and the poor farmers were frequently victimized by the armies passing through, stealing their already meager food supply and spreading disease. It was a terribly time to be alive.

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