[HN Gopher] Volcanic eruptions set off a chain of events that br...
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       Volcanic eruptions set off a chain of events that brought Black
       Death to Europe
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 65 points
       Date   : 2025-12-06 04:31 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.cam.ac.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.cam.ac.uk)
        
       | stevenjgarner wrote:
       | Results reported in the journal Communications Earth &
       | Environment [1] submitted to HN [2]
       | 
       | [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02964-0
       | 
       | [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46151324
        
       | justonceokay wrote:
       | The causal relationship here is murky. If have a hard time
       | believing that a change in Italian shipping in 1345 was the only
       | thing that allowed the bubonic plague to enter the otherwise
       | hermetically sealed Europe.
       | 
       | The reason for the plague was disastrous health and cleanliness
       | standards.
        
         | empath75 wrote:
         | I also think the collapse of the byzantine empire and the rise
         | of the mongols would have lead to direct trade between the
         | mongols and italians anyway.
        
       | throw0101d wrote:
       | While most folks have probably heard of "the" Renaissance:
       | 
       | * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance
       | 
       | * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance
       | 
       | it was not the first in history:
       | 
       | * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_of_the_12th_centur...
       | 
       | There's a certain 'critical mass' of people and thinkers, as well
       | as decent enough communications (roads, letters) to allow for
       | collaboration, needed to achieve a flowering/growth of knowledge,
       | and that was cut off by (amongst other things) the Black Death:
       | 
       | * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_late_Middle_Ages
        
         | anthk wrote:
         | Alphonse X "The Wise". A Castillian king basically sanctioned a
         | book on board games, from chess to a few less known ones with
         | dice. Enough said. There's tons of difference between the 6th
         | century and the 12th.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libro_de_los_juegos
         | 
         | This would blow out lots of Anglo-Saxon minds with a very bad
         | depiction of Middle Ages compared to the modern era from
         | Newton. But, IRL, it was all about a _gradual_ modernization of
         | thinking.
         | 
         | People didn't just became _modern_ with the Enlightenment and
         | then the Industrial Revolution. It happened tons of stuff in
         | between.
        
       | aaroninsf wrote:
       | This is the sort of headline you get when academic research must
       | function as click bait.
       | 
       | There are very few _X caused Y_ statements one can make about
       | historical events in good faith or with good cause.
        
       | hinkley wrote:
       | Long ago when the History Channel was still about History, they
       | did a hypothetical "What if the 10 plagues of Egypt actually
       | happened?" That was surprisingly plausible. I'm getting some
       | vibes of that.
       | 
       | The punchline of that hypothetical was that the hail and the
       | locusts lead to wet grain being pulled into storehouses. A fungus
       | that locusts can carry that is poisonous mouldered in the
       | storehouses. The cultural tradition of giving the firstborn son a
       | double helping may have reached fatal levels of exposure to the
       | toxin, killing enough children to become a myth.
        
       | ls-a wrote:
       | So the tsunamis of 2004 and 2011 could've caused covid?
        
         | cj wrote:
         | Didn't a butterfly cause those tsunamis? :)
        
           | euroderf wrote:
           | Not any old butterfly. Mothra.
        
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       (page generated 2025-12-10 23:01 UTC)