(ORDO NEWS) — “The sun gave a sign the like of which has never been seen or reported. The sun darkened, and its darkness lasted 18 months.
Every day it shone for about four hours, and yet this light was only a faint shadow. Everyone thought that the sun would never again return to its full light.”
Between 535 and 536 a series of major global climatic events occurred that can easily be described as a global cataclysm with catastrophic consequences.
The above excerpt is taken from the writings of the historian and authoritative sixth-century spiritual leader John of Ephesus in his historical work Historiae Ecclesiasticae.
John of Ephesus is not the only one who mentions this event . Procopius lived between AD 500 and 565, he was a scholar of late antiquity and one of the main historians of the 6th century.
He also mentions the strange behavior of the sun and believes that this is a bad sign and the beginning of bad things.
“…during this year the most terrible thing happened. For the sun emitted its light without brightness … and it seemed very similar to the sun in an eclipse, for the rays that it shed were unclear”, History of Wars: Vandal War.
And we have another mention from a sixth-century writer, Zacharias of Mitylene, who is the author of a chronicle containing a section mentioning the “dark sun” in the period 535/536 AD.
“The sun began to darken during the day, and the moon at night, and the ocean raged from the waves from March 24 of this year until June 24 of next year…
And since the winter was severe, so much so that birds died from a large and unprecedented amount of snow… then there was a disaster… among people… from evil deeds, ”- Zechariah of Mitylene (Chronicle, 9.19, 10.1)
These three passages are just a representative example of the many stories from around the world written in the same time period. In all cases the sun was described as dimming and losing its light . Many have also described it as taking on a bluish color.
A similar effect was observed with the moon – it was no longer so bright. The decrease in light has led to a decrease in heat on the planet; lack of rain and a very long winter led to crop failure, the death of birds and other wild animals, writes Zacharias of Mytilene. Famine and plague struck many areas and there was a huge amount of death.
In China and Japan, this event was also recorded in great detail. Massive droughts and thousands of deaths . There was not enough water for people and land. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land have become barren.
The chronicles of Beishi, the official history of the Northern Dynasties, mention that in 536, 80% of the population died in Xi’an province, and the survivors ate corpses to survive.
The catastrophic event hit Korea, America, Europe, Africa and Australia. Although written evidence does not exist for all countries, archaeological and geological evidence has revealed evidence of climate change. For example, studies done on tree trunks have shown that 536 AD was the coldest year in the last 1,500 years.
The big question in all of this is why did this happen? While there are no definitive answers, one theory that has been put forward is that there was an impact by a large asteroid or a comet that fell into the sea (if it had hit land, it would have left a crater).
Geologist Dallas Abbott is one of the proponents of this view and bases his view on the evidence he found while studying ice cores from Greenland. However, this does not explain the sun’s dim light, and no tsunami was recorded during this period, which would have occurred if the asteroid had hit the ocean.
Another theory put forward is a giant volcanic eruption – dust thrown into the atmosphere could have caused the dim light.
One candidate is the Krakatoa volcano, located between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. Indeed, in the “Book of Ancient Kings” or “Pustaka Raja Purva”, written in 1869, an ancient volcano is described.
“There was a violent shaking of the earth, complete darkness, thunder and light … Then a violent wind arose with heavy rain, and a deadly storm overshadowed the whole world. When the waters subsided, it became clear that the island of Java had split into two parts, resulting in the formation of the island of Sumatra.
However, this manuscript is from AD 416, not AD 535. However, the fact that it was written in the 19th century may account for inaccuracies in timing.
Whether an answer will ever be found is unknown. It is not known whether scientists continue to study this event at all. One feature of this global cataclysm is that it is a very little known event .
Why is this climate event not taught in schools? Why is there not a lot of research on this event?
Perhaps because it reminds us of our fragility as human beings and that no matter how powerful and “advanced” humanity may become, we still remain at the mercy of nature.
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