![]() ![]() He noted that bodies were left stacked in the open due to a lack of space for proper burial and during his lifetime he lost his wife, daughter, grandchildren and most of his servants to the plague. Procopius was once again on the scene to record the events. The plague arrived in Constantinople, the capital of the empire, the following year in 542 AD. The lucky ones died quickly whilst those less fortunate suffered for many days before their eventual demise. Victims were described as suffering from delusions, nightmares, fevers and swellings in the groin, armpits, and behind their ears. ![]() ![]() In 541 AD a mysterious illness began to appear on the outskirts of the Byzantine Empire. Widespread famine ensued and this subsequently made the people of the time more susceptible to disease. Global cooling and colder summers caused crops to be damaged before they could be harvested. The appearance of the dust veil in 536 AD had a major impact on the people of the time. It is even possible that both of these events may have happened with a comet impact and a major volcanic eruption occurring at around the same time and both playing a contributing role to the appearance of the dust veil. More recently in 2013 the American paleoecologist Dr Robert Dull has suggested that it was actually an eruption of El Salvador’s Lake Ilopango in 535 AD that was responsible. In 1984 the Astrophysicist and climate change expert Dr Richard Stothers suggested that it was caused by an eruption of the Rabaul volcano. Over the past 30 years or so there have been numerous hypotheses that the global cooling of 536 AD was triggered by a major volcanic eruption that released an immense amount of ash into the atmosphere. The actual cause of this bizarre metrological anomaly has long baffled scientists and historians but the two most often quoted are the ‘volcanic winter’ theory and the ‘comet impact’ theory. The effects must have been terrifying for the people that lived at the time. In the 18 months that followed there was a period of dramatic global cooling, unseasonal freak weather events, crop failures and famine. Further scientific evidence is provided by ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, which demonstrate the presence of substantial sulfate deposits, indicating the presence of an extensive acidic dust layer. Tree-ring analysis from the same period shows abnormally low growth levels in areas as far apart as Ireland, Sierra Nevada and Chile. There was also summer snow and frost reported there that year. The dust veil was seen as far east as China and the star Canopus, used by the Chinese to assure themselves of good times ahead and to demark the seasons, was not seen for over a year. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness… and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the bea ms it shed were not clear” “During this year a most dread portent took place. The Byzantine historian Procopius wrote in his report on the wars with the Vandals: This thick veil of dust seemingly appeared from nowhere and darkened the skies between Europe and Asia for almost 18 months. In the summer of 536 AD, a mysterious and dramatic cloud of dust appeared over the Mediterranean. It is also during this period that the most severe phase of global cooling in the last 2,000 years occurred and that the Plague of Justinian devastated the Byzantine Empire. It was during this period that the legendary King Arthur is said to have led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders and that Beowulf ruled the Geats. Empires fell and new ones rose up to take their place. It marked the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The sixth century AD was a tumultuous period of human history. ![]()
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