536 AD: Worst year of my life?

[JCan]

Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...perspective/4FABB859643B4B4213B97D0F98ED8D85#

 

[soda7777777]

I saw that the other day, Jcan. It's a bit difficult to conclusively come up with one year being a completely bad for humanity.
The article itself opens with the claim:
"Ask medieval historian Michael McCormick what year was the worst to be alive, and he's got an answer: "536." ..... In Europe, "It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year," says McCormick, a historian and archaeologist who chairs the Harvard University Initiative for the Science of the Human Past."

Which itself is a bit confusing, as his main point seems to be 536 was the beginning of bad times within Europe and not outside of it. He mentions some crop failures in China, but doesn't really elaborate on it being some widespread climate change effect, and fails to mention anything about the Americas, South Asia, Australia or subsaharan Africa.

 

[Barsoom]

Not to mention the text for the picture at the top of the article says "The fall of the Roman Empire may have been a partial result of the decade of famine and plague that began in A.D. 536." Hard to take it seriously after that.

 

[sleeperul]

I doubt it was that year. I doubt its any exact year.Century maybe.

 

[Henry IX]

The more specific you get in place the more specific you can be time. Worst year to be alive in western Europe might be an arguable proposition. Worst week to be alive in a specific village could be argued. Worst year to be a human anywhere on the planet is just not a viable proposition.

That being said, there is some genetic evidence that the human race went through an extreme genetic bottleneck at some point (the Toba eruption is the most common example) with only a few thousand humans surviving. Whenever (if) that happened is likely to have been a sucky time to be alive.

 

[Calad]

The Bronze Age Collapse in Greece.

Greeks literally forgot how to write. All the cities were either abandoned or burned (excluding Athens). The title of king was lost and they had to reset whole civilization starting again in Greek Archaic period. There are no history nor legends from Mycenaean period. The Cyclops built Mycenaean walls.

All this was lost until rediscovered in 19th century.

 

[Avernite]

The Bronze Age Collapse in Greece.

Greeks literally forgot how to write. All the cities were either abandoned or burned (excluding Athens). The title of king was lost and they had to reset whole civilization starting again in Greek Archaic period. There are no history nor legends from Mycenaean period. The Cyclops built Mycenaean walls.

All this was lost until rediscovered in 19th century.

I thought the Trojan conflict was widely interpreted as a Mycenaean legend surviving to the present?

 

[Calad]

I thought the Trojan conflict was widely interpreted as a Mycenaean legend surviving to the present?

Yes, you are correct from modern perspective.

However Greeks did not saw it as Mycenaean legend but instead of dawn of man-story like titanomachy and King Minos. The Trojan War likely took place and Troy was definitely sacked multiple of times. Even historians like Herodotus was rather critical towards it.

It is a legend that took roots in Mycenaean period and then lost contact to original civilization. Like writing, king-title and war definitely didnt last 10 years. Similar way how we see The Garden of Eden as a Jewish myth but its roots are in ancient Mesopotamia.

 

[Geriander]

I thought the Trojan conflict was widely interpreted as a Mycenaean legend surviving to the present?

Maybe. The destruction of the last large city at Troy was by earthquake and the latter settlement that may have fallen to a siege seems way too small to fit the Troy of Homer.

 

[Fishman786]

Maybe. The destruction of the last large city at Troy was by earthquake and the latter settlement that may have fallen to a siege seems way too small to fit the Troy of Homer.

One theory about this is that the wooden horse in the story represents Poseidon (due to some Indo-European stuff Poseidon was originally associated with horses) and Poseidon was the god of earthquakes. Maybe the facts got mixed up across the centuries and a myth about a rival city being destroyed by the horse-god Poseidon became a legend about the Greek army using a literal horse to break through the city walls instead.

 

[Yakman]

I have long maintained that the best time and place to be a kid was in dark ages Rome.

Can you imagine how much fun you would have had running around all of those cyclopean ruins?

 

[Avernite]

I have long maintained that the best time and place to be a kid was in dark ages Rome.

Can you imagine how much fun you would have had running around all of those cyclopean ruins?

If Lovecraft taught me anything, it's that cyclopean is not good

 

[Yakman]

If Lovecraft taught me anything, it's that cyclopean is not good

you will be eaten first!

 

[Easy-Kill]

I have long maintained that the best time and place to be a kid was in dark ages Rome.

Can you imagine how much fun you would have had running around all of those cyclopean ruins?

I am sure that it was great provided you weren't one of the 50-66% that died before the age of 10.

 

[Eusebio]

I'd go for the Bronze Age Collapse of the first half of the 12th century BC as probably being the worst time to live in human history. Within the space of a few decades pretty much every single city in the Eastern Mediterranean was destroyed and every empire in the Ancient Near East had simultaneously collapsed.