The Little ICE AGE That Started The MIDDLE AGES
609A letter by Cassiodorus, who lived in the 6th century AD, describes strange weather phenomena for 536 AD. Regarded for so long as one of many ancient accounts of prodigious events, today it has led instead to the rediscovery of a period of great cold in the early Middle Ages, the Late Antique Little Ice Age.
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Primary sources and insights:
Annales Cambriae, 10th century AD.
Cassiodorus, Variae XXV, 537 AD (less likely 538)
Michael the Syrian, Chronicle, late 12th century
Procopius of Caesarea, Ιστορια, 553 AD.
Büntgen U. et al, Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD, 2016.
Harper K., The fate of Rome: Climate, disease and the end of an empire, 2017
Larsen L. B. et al, New ice core evidence for a volcanic cause of the A.D. 536 dust veil, 2008
Smith V. C. et al, The magnitude and impact of the Tierra Blanca Joven eruption of A.D. 431 in Ilopango, El Salvador, 2020
Stothers R. B., The Great Tambora Eruption in 1815 and Its Aftermath, 1984
Wirakusumah A. D., Rachmat H., Impact of the Tambora eruption of 1815 on global climate change, 2017
Zonneveld K., Climate change, society and pandemic diseases in Roman Italy between 200 BC and 600 BC, 2024
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Chapters:
00:00 A mysterious letter
01:50 Tambora
05:33 The other sources
08:40 The Late Antique Little Ice Age
11:53 The cold that started the Middle Ages
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Background music:
“Unsafe Roads,” ‘Dark Hollows’ and ‘Marked’ by Alexander Nakarada (www.creatorchords.com)
Licensed under a Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 license
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/