536: The Year the Sun Disappeared

History has had some awful years, but few compare to the year the sun disappeared, 536, also known as the worst year in history.

For about 18 months much of the Northern Hemisphere was plunged into literal darkness as a mysterious fog enveloped the skies. This was no fleeting anomaly; it was the harbinger of global cooling, famine, economic collapse, and widespread suffering in what truly earns the oft too easily given title of “dark age.”

The year the sun disappeared

To understand the scale of this climatological disaster, imagine the ninth plague of Egypt from the Book of Exodus in the Bible, which tells of a three-day darkness. In 536, the world endured something far worse: a dimmed sun for a year and a half.

Talking about 536, Byzantine historian Procopius wrote, “The sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year. It seemed to many like a permanent eclipse had overtaken the world.”

The fog caused global temperatures to plummet by an estimated 35°F to 37°F in Europe and Asia. Summer snows fell in China, where historical accounts describe frost-covered fields and widespread crop failures. The effects of this climatic disaster were later confirmed by tree-ring analyses in Lapland, Finland, and in Ireland, which showed an abrupt and severe drop in growth during this period.

How the worst year in history came to be

For centuries, the cause of the sun’s disappearance remained a mystery. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that ice core samples revealed the culprit: volcanic eruptions. A 2018 study published in Antiquity identified a massive eruption in Iceland as the likely trigger. This eruption, which took place in early 536, ejected tons of ash and sulfur into the atmosphere, forming a global veil that blocked sunlight.

The volcanic eruptions of 536 were so catastrophic that they altered global climate patterns. The volcanic winter that ensued wreaked havoc on agriculture, leading to widespread famine and societal collapse.

To mount pressure on the already existing crisis, additional eruptions in 540 and 547 extended the cooling period, plunging much of the world into what scientists call the Late Antique Little Ice Age, which lasted in some regions for over a century.

The human toll

The effects of the year 536 and its aftermath were devastating. Crops failed across continents, triggering widespread famine. In Europe, food shortages led to social and economic stagnation. The Byzantine Empire, already weakened by internal conflicts and external wars, faced cascading crises.

Procopius captured the despair of the time, “Men were free neither from war nor pestilence nor any other thing leading to death.”

In China, agricultural collapse and freezing summers caused mass starvation. Accounts from the era describe snow falling in midsummer, an event so alien and destructive that it underscored the abnormality of the climate. The jumbled seasons and failed harvests destabilized communities, leading to migrations and internal conflicts.

The suffering wasn’t limited to hunger, as In 541 the first outbreak of the bubonic plague struck. Also known as the Plague of Justinian, it spread rampantly through the Byzantine Empire, killing about half of its population and compounding the societal collapse already underway.

A legacy of darkness

The events of 536 were transformative, marking the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive. The economic stagnation that began in 536 lingered for decades. Trade routes faltered, cities shrank, and technological progress stalled. The effects of the sun’s disappearance were drastic and far-reaching

Modern research into this dark year underscores the importance of understanding the interconnectedness of natural events and human societies. The volcanic eruptions of 536 serve as a reminder and a warning that even distant geological events can ripple across continents, reshaping history in profound ways.

The year 536 stands out as a testament to the power of nature to disrupt human life on a global scale. What began with a volcanic eruption in Iceland cascaded into a worldwide catastrophe that altered the trajectory of human history. For 18 months, the sun’s light was dimmed, temperatures plummeted, and societies struggled to survive in what seemed like an apocalyptic nightmare.