[blam]

"some point after A.D. 500, when shipping activities mysteriously stopped."

It looks like that prior to 500AD trade (and knowledge) with India was fairly wide spread through-out the Mediterranean. So, why was Colombus looking for a 'sea-route' in 1492?

Saty tuned and I'll tell you.

[blam]

Ping.

[Verginius Rufus]

In Columbus' time Egypt was under Muslim rule, and it wasn't practical for Europeans to travel via Egypt and the Red Sea to get to India. The Portuguese had discovered the route around Africa by 1488, but Columbus thought it would be easier and shorter to sail directly west across the Atlantic...because he thought the world was much smaller than it really is, and didn't know that there was a landmass in the way.

[KellyAdmirer]

The Byzantines lost Egypt in 640 A.D., so cessation of this trade with Europe at that point isn't much of a mystery.

[Chris Talk]

While some may have hoped to get to the East by sailing West, Columbus was not one of them at the time he sailed.

Having been to Greenland and the Norse domains, he suspected that the landmass he had seen as Labrador extended all the way down as Plato had said, being the true "continent" or piecrust, that contained the three-lobed Eur/Asi/Africa world as an island floating in the middle of the pie... This all as would be seen from a spacecraft over Cairo, BTW

It was only after Columbus' first voyage that he, and the Euro world in general, went wild with India and China expectations. Why? They had found "Asiatics," "Indians" in their words... therefore these countries must be near, or connected to, Asia. Before that, Columbus had not expected such: his contract referred only to "certain islands and mainlands in the Western Ocean not now subject to any Christian prince." No mention of Asia.

Had blacks been found, the lands would have been assumed to connect to Africa in the south. Had whites been found, the lands would have been presumed to connect to Europe in the north, near Scandinavia. Had the lands been uninhabited, then maybe their true position would have been more quickly understood; that, after all, is what Columbus EXPECTED to be the case.

Instead, Asiatics were found, in Columbus' opinion. Thus the peoples found are forever "Indians," and the legend that Asia was his original intent, rather than the sudden bonanza hope that entered his head after finding the inhabitants.... was born... And has never fully died.

[Chris Talk]

BTW, no mystery at all about why trade stopped after 500!

What caused it? Muhammad, Muzzies, Muslims, Islam, and all other such words. Violent Arabs and their exorbitant thefts and baksheesheries.

[John Beresford Tipton]

"So, why was Colombus looking for a 'sea-route' in 1492?"

Wasn't it because the Venetians had a lock on this trade,
and they didn't share toys or play well with others?

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
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[Cronos]

Actually there's evidence of trade between Sumeria and India from 3000 BC, so trade around the time of the Roman Empire is comparatively recent.

[SunkenCiv]

Not a ping, just a GGG update.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Astronomy & Geophysics
Volume 45 Issue 1 Page 1.23 - February 2004
doi:10.1046/j.1468-4004.2003.45123.x
Volume 45 Issue 1

Comet impact
A comet impact in AD 536?
Emma Rigby1, Melissa Symonds2 and Derek Ward-Thompson2

Emma Rigby, Melissa Symonds and Derek Ward-Thompson review the evidence for the possibility that a comet may have impacted the Earth in historical times, and discuss the size of the putative comet.

Abstract

A global climatic downturn has previously been observed in tree-ring data associated with the years AD 536–545. We review the evidence for the explanation of this event which involves a comet fragment impacting the Earth and exploding in the upper atmosphere. The explosion would create a plume, such as was seen during the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter. The resulting debris deposited by the plume on to the top of the atmosphere would increase the opacity and lower the temperature. We calculate the size of the comet required, and find that a relatively small fragment of only about half a kilometre in diameter could be consistent with the data. We conclude that plume formation is a by-product of small comet impacts that must be added to the list of significant global hazards posed by near-Earth objects.

Article published online 28 Jan 2004

Affiliations

1Cardiff University, UK (now at Edinburgh University, UK)2Cardiff University

The authors thank Mike Baillie, Mark Bailey, Martin Johnson, Ted Johnson-South and David Williams for interesting and helpful discussions.

To cite this article
Rigby, Emma, Symonds, Melissa & Ward-Thompson, Derek (2004)
A comet impact in AD 536?.
Astronomy & Geophysics 45 (1), 1.23-1.26.
doi: 10.1046/
j.1468-4004.2003.45123.x

Blackwell Synergy® is a Blackwell Publishing, Inc. registered trademark

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[SunkenCiv]

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[bert]

——We talk today about globalism as if it were the latest thing——

We trade today using rules and laws dating back into the unknown. The marine insurance and letters of credit are truly ancient relics that still protect and promote the interests of traders who never see each other but get along well with the intervention of middlemen and contracts that both parties accept.

The process certainly precede the Romans, and goes back to at least the sailors and traders of Crete who owned the Med

The introduction of e mail and instant transmission of every kind of document and video presentation into the trade communications has allowed elimination of the middleman. Direct access to a trading pardner allows the development of trust or mistrust one on one. Global trade can only grow. To ignore and impede is detrimental to one’s well being