Why 536 AD Was the Worst Year to Be Alive

In 536 AD the sun shone like the moon for a year and a half. Crops failed from Ireland to China, a deadly pandemic followed, and a cold settled over the world for more than a century. Scientists have called it the worst year to be alive. For almost 1,500 years nobody knew why. The answer was waiting in the ice. But which volcano did it is still a mystery. Chapters 0:00 The sun without brightness 0:58 The world in 536 1:48 The witnesses 2:44 What the trees remember 3:31 A message in the ice 4:21 Suspect one: Iceland 5:06 Suspect two: Ilopango 6:10 The plague 7:23 The Late Antique Little Ice Age 8:20 The verdict 9:03 The volcano with no name Sources A. Gibbons, "Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive'", Science (2018) M. Sigl et al., "Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years", Nature (2015) U. Büntgen et al., "Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD", Nature Geoscience (2016) C. Loveluck, M. McCormick et al., Antiquity (2018), Colle Gnifetti ice core R. Dull et al., Quaternary Science Reviews (2019), Ilopango dated to 539/540 V. Smith et al., PNAS (2020), Ilopango dated to 431 L. Mordechai, M. Eisenberg et al., "The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic?", PNAS (2019) Maps, charts and animation are original, made for this channel. Charts of temperature, sulphate, lead and tree rings are schematic illustrations based on the studies above. Images from Wikimedia Commons: Mosaic of Justinian I, San Vitale, Ravenna. Photo: Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0 Codex Amiatinus, portrait of Ezra (public domain) Josse Lieferinxe, "Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken" (public domain) Yersinia pestis micrograph, CDC (public domain) Hagia Sophia: AUTHOR, LICENSE Volcanic eruption: AUTHOR, LICENSE Icelandic eruption: AUTHOR, LICENSE Lake Ilopango: AUTHOR, LICENSE Gold bracteate: AUTHOR, LICENSE Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com): "Dark Fog", "Desert City", "Echoes of Time", "Gathering Darkness", "Despair and Triumph" Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Watch next: Who Killed the Bronze Age? The Collapse of 1177 BC    • Who Killed the Bronze Age? The Collapse of...   Subscribe for more history mysteries told through maps:    / @ashcartographer   #history #536AD #historydocumentary #worstyear #volcanicwinter #volcano #darkages #byzantineempire #justinian #plague #climatehistory #ancienthistory