Daniel Headrick, “The Two Disasters of the Sixth Century” (Yale Environmental History Colloquium)

In the sixth century, the Mediterranean world and Europe were hit by two disasters: a dust cloud from 536 to 540 that ruined the harvests, and an epidemic of bubonic plague that started in 541. New discoveries by climatologists and geneticists are beginning to unravel the causes of these disasters. But the connections between the two phenomena are still mysterious.