Medieval Lexicon of Symbology

  300,000 BC Existence of anatomically modern Humans.  11,700 BP?  The beginning of the Holocene Epoch,  This is the modern epoch we are currently in.  The Holocene follows the Holocene Glacial Retreat which ended the Last Glacial Period.   The Holocene is technically the latest period of the larger Pleistocene Epoch, characterized by alternating glacial advance and retreat, with interglacial periods between.  There is no evidence that the current epoch is not simply one such interglacial period. The late Pleistocene would colloquially be referred to as the Ice Age, while the early Holocene is popularly referred to as the Stone Age.    The established view was that climate variability during the Holocene was negligible.  Geologists posited a "steady state model" of climate that is now coming into question.  Instead, the data suggests that there were at least four climatic movements since the Ice Age. 10,000 BC  Gobekli Tep...

  A decade of the coldest weather, the planet was shrouded in darkness due to volcanic eruptions. Ten years of agricultural failures led to famine and malnutrition, which led to the Justinian plague. This began 250 years of very hard times. Welcome to the actual Dark Ages.  A volcanic eruption sends a huge volume of ash and sulfur into the stratosphere, which is dispersed to cover the entire planet, reflecting sunlight away from the earth. Insolation would have been at twilight levels, though not pitch black. "Shrouded" in this case, means covered as by a veil.  ( For more information google "Volcanic Winter".) This would have had two effects: with so little light, crops would have had difficulty producing during this time. Also, with light reflected into space, the earth would have been noticeably cooler, also affecting plant production. A single large eruption has measurable effects for 2 years after the eruption due to the aerosols remaining suspended in ...