WHOA! Volcanos and Syphilis! Medieval? Yes!

Syphilis, a disease that has long been reported to originate from the new world, along with potatoes and other delights, was discovered in advanced stages on the bodies of medieval people in a grave in east London. Read the full story here: The History Blog: Volcano Caused Mass Deaths in 13th c. London

This is kind of ho hum. It was pretty exciting to believe that when Europeans came to the new world, they brought all those diseases, and wah-bam! Native Americans gave them Syphilis... But, no...


Also in the news, VOLCANO SHUTS OUT SUN, in 13th Century Europe, causing a mass burial of poor starving folks near the same grave.

This is exciting, because as we all know, or should, Europe was hit with a Little Ice age, which begins with a cooling period at this exact time. The 1300s started with bad weather, continued with the great famine, and ended with constant black plague. Along with my favorite horrible rulers, and the best hundred years war to ever happen, in France. Not to mention constant rioting from underfed poor people who couldn't afford to buy the food they were harvesting for their masters.

So now, we have a cause for the biggest cooling trend Europe had seen since the fall of Rome. Very Exciting!

Of course there are questions, like HOLY CRAP thats a big volcano! An ash plume that is big enough to cause a change in the climate of Europe for 600 years is pretty darn big. Where was it? If it killed so many people in Europe how did the people near it fair? Will it happen again?

Plus, if so many people were killed in London from starvation in the 1250s from this event, how many other people died in other large cities? Could burial sites attributed to plague victors, in actuality be volcano victims?

And of course what does this have to do with art? Nothing, but its exciting. And lots of artists probably died. Or at least there was a decline in the production of certain goods do to labor loss. This could explain why they stopped creating Limoges Enamels around this time. But it doesn't explain the increase in Ivory production. Ho-Hum.