Back to the Bronze Age calendar
We all know that weather changes, not just from day-to-day but year-to-year. Even you young people will remember some winters when it snowed, some when it didn’t. But did you know you can actually tell a bit about weather from the past from trees? No, you don’t talk to them but, if you cut down an old, tall tree, you’ll get told off big time. However, sometimes these tree fall or are felled for safety or to provide wood and if you look at the rings inside the trunk you can tell a bit about the weather.
In simple terms a tree grows a new ring each year. In a good weather year, the tree will have a longer growing season and the rings will be wider. Less time to grow and the ring will be narrower.
Of course all trees are different but the experts have found that for 5 years after 1,628BC and, more importantly, for 18 years between 1,159BC and 1,141BC, trees show very little growth.
In parts of the world where there was already writing, there are texts which show that during these years a large dust cloud blocked out the sun. People would have been very frightened and it would have been dark nearly all day. No one is certain why this happened. In 2010 a volcano erupted in Iceland and clouds of ash were sent into the air. It was so bad aeroplanes couldn’t fly anywhere near there and the ash cloud spread for thousands of miles. Perhaps a massive volcano erupted back in Bronze Age times. Some people think that the sun was blocked by the dust cloud from a comet or asteroid which passed close to the earth.
Whatever it was, our Bronze Age people had a long period of time without sunlight.
Forward to 1140BC
