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TALE OF ARTHUR POINTS TO COMET CATASTROPHE From The Times, 9 September 2000 http://www.the-times.co.uk BY NICK NUTTALL Arthur: myth links him to fire from the sky THE story of the death of King Arthur and its references to a wasteland may have been inspired by the apocalyptic effects of a giant comet bombarding the Earth in AD540, leading to the Dark Ages, a British scientist said yesterday. The impacts filled the atmosphere with dust and debris; a long winter began. Crops failed, and there was famine, Dr Mike Baillie of Queen's University, Belfast, told the British Association for the Advancement...

A sixth-century "mini" ice age may have been "the straw that broke the camel's back" that led to the final disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, a new study claims...By studying rocks carried by icebergs from Greenland all the way to Iceland's west coast, a team of researchers has uncovered what they believe is more evidence for the severity of this mini ice age. Their findings, published April 8 in the journal Geology, point to the prolonged cooling being a key factor in the eventual decline of the Western Roman Empire — although not all historians agree...Economic crisis, government corruption,...

Nine gold pendants with rare horse symbols, ten gold beads, and three gold rings from the 6th century were recently discovered by a metal detectorist in Southwestern Norway. Erlend Bore just wanted a hobby. So just before this summer, he bought a metal detector. To get him off his couch and go treasure hunting. He was searching around the shore of the island Rennesøy in Stavanger, in Southwestern Norway, when the metal detector started to beep. In a lump of soil, he saw something that looked like gold coins. “At first I thought I’d found chocolate money with a gold...

Scientists shared evidence in early 2023 of a global cataclysm in 536 AD that led to crop failures, famine, social collapse and darkness around the world. Recent research shared by the History Channel suggests that a massive volcanic eruption and potential subsequent or simultaneous eruptions could have forced the world into darkness for more than 18 months. The hypothesized eruption caused a volcanic winter that significantly shifted the global climate, and may have led to the collapse of empires and widespread plagues, according to Ancient Origins. But there is a huge problem: we don’t have any evidence to suggest the...

Ask medieval historian Michael McCormick what year was the worst to be alive, and he's got an answer: "536." Not 1349, when the Black Death wiped out half of Europe. Not 1918, when the flu killed 50 million to 100 million people, mostly young adults. But 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.

The Dark Ages : Were They Darker Than We Imagined? By Greg Bryant Published in the September 1999 issue of Universe As we approach the end of the Second Millennium, a review of ancient history is not what you would normally expect to read in the pages of Universe. Indeed, except for reflecting on the AD 837 apparition of Halley's Comet (when it should have been as bright as Venus and would have moved through 60 degrees of sky in one day as it passed just 0.03 AU from Earth - three times closer than Hyakutake in 1996), you may...

Ancient Global Dimming Linked to Volcanic Eruption Ker Than for National Geographic NewsMarch 19, 2008 A "dry fog" that muted the sun's rays in A.D. 536 and plunged half the world into a famine-inducing chill was triggered by the eruption of a supervolcano, a new study says. The cause of the sixth-century global dimming has long been a matter of debate, but a team of international researchers recently discovered acidic sulphate molecules, which are signs of an eruption, in Greenland ice. This is the first physical evidence for the A.D. 536 event, which according to ancient texts from Mesoamerica, Europe,...