536 AD: The Year the Sun Disappeared - Episode 1

Good morning, now we are going to move on to some documentaries from the Dark Ages.  We will be looking at the year 536 AD and the year the sun disappeared.  So why did the sun disappear?  Watch this documentary to find out!  The run time is 49:15.

The year 536 AD was the year dubbed the “year without something.”  This was an event that terrified the people.  The sun went dark and the rain the color of blood poured from the skies.  Winter gripped the land for two years.  Drought, famine, and plague followed.  Whole cities were whipped out and civilization crumbled.  What happened?  What was going on?  This catastrophe affected the people around the world and nobody knew the answers until now.

One historian is investigating this event and he is taking his search worldwide.  There was a catastrophic climate event that happened and it completely altered the course of history.  It was a mystery for him when he found out about the event in 1994.  He had been listening to a dendrochronologist and this dendrochronologist talks about how all the tree rings went haywire during this period.  The trees had hinted at an event that happened in past. 

As trees grow, they add a layer to the bark as they grow and this is known as tree rings.  The rings grew wider when the years were good but when the weather was bad the tree rings grew closer together.  There was a pattern that was emerging with the trees.  Each ring pattern can be matched with other trees.  A computer program was developed to help map these patterns for comparison to other trees.  This program is still used today in laboratories.  Scientists can use these patterns to date buildings and other trees.

Many, many samples were collected over the years and the tree rings tell scientists about the weather for the past several thousand years.  In a way, the trees were telling the scientists about their growing period.  So what was the environmental information stored in these patterns?  The Irish Trees where this program was built shows that something was happening.  The tree rings were extremely narrow, hinting that the trees were no longer growing.  One scientist compared the results to trees in Europe and found the same pattern.  Whatever this event was affected Europe.

The search was expanded to trees from all over the world and there was a pattern emerging.  In the mid-sixth century, trees were having a troubling time.  The trees were no longer growing, hinting at a worldwide cold period.  Why were the trees not growing?  Was it the cold?  Was it drought?  Was it pollution?  German trees were showing no growth.  What was the implication of this worldwide evidence?

Additional to the trees, there was archeological evidence.  The timbers from archeological sites a new type of house was built to shelter against the harsh environment.  The cold would have forced a change in lifestyle for the people.  They could no longer farm and had to turn to the water for their food.  It would have been a bleak existence.  The people were suffering during this period.  So are there written accounts of what was going on during this time?

There were many Roman accounts of the bizarre weather.  One bishop described the events taking place.  The light of the sun had dimmed and it had lasted for eighteen months.  Everyone declared that the sun would never come back again.  The Romans documented extraordinary weather events.  Another Roman historian wrote about the dimming of the sun ad well as the lack of rain.  He talked about what happened as a result of these events.

What about other civilizations?  There were additional sources from around the world.  The civilizations documented the year without the sun and the starvation that followed these events.  One civilization documented yellow dust in the air.  People were starving.  The research continued and it soon grew clear that the event enveloped the world.  This event left an impact on the trees.  What would have caused such a worldwide event?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

This would be an excellent document to show to a science class as well as a history class because of the discussion on the weather.