There was some kind of big natural disruption reported in Roman times by Cassiodorus if I remember correctly. THe year with no sun, or something like that. I am too tired to research this, but I’ll bet SC has some links on that. SC probably has links on Toba too.
Toba was huge and caused a sudden temperature drop when seen on long term climate temperature charts. The remaining caldera is around 16 miles by 65 miles. I have noticed a lack of human and human activity finds after that catastrophe, and from what I have seen there was a noticeable increase of such finds around 50,000 years ago after more than 20,000 years for human society to recover and start having recognizable cultural artifacts again.
An age of 1600 would not put a major volcano between Tambora and Krakatoa as they were in the 1800s. Regarding our own century, several years ago HungaTonga (sp?) had a really huge explosion sending vast quantities of water vapor into the stratosphere. I wonder if all the flooding we have had recently may be a result from this mass of water vapor gradually falling down into the storm level atmosphere. Any ideas or links on that thought?
Toba is largely a myth, at least in regard to its impact. There was no bottleneck.
Sorry, I was unclear, I meant between Tamboo and Krakatoa size wise.