The Dark Ages
People tend to look back with nostalgia, thinking yesterday was better than today.
But historians and scientists recently posited that one date in the past – AD 536 – was humanity’s worst year, CNN reported.
According to a study in the journal Antiquity, the team analyzed ice samples from the Swiss Alps and uncovered atmospheric pollutants deposited over the past 2,000 years.
They found that a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland in 536 caused a massive cloud of ash that engulfed the whole Northern Hemisphere in darkness and led to a drop in temperatures, resulting in crop failures and starvation.
More misery followed in 541 and 542, when plague hastened the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Study co-author Michael McCormick told Science Magazine that AD 536 was “the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.”
The volcanic event led to Europe’s economic stagnation, plunging it into a Dark Age.
Luckily, however, scientists also found traces of lead particles in the samples, suggesting that silver smelting – which requires lead ore – helped revive the economy a century later.
“There is evidence of total economic transformation between 640 and 660,” co-author Christopher Loveluck told CNN.
Good times are always coming.
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