[meteorite-list] Re:Comet hit Britain in mid sixth century AD?

From: Dave Harris <entropydave_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jul 21 11:04:53 2006
Message-ID: <44C0ECD0.000006.02612_at_D500>

Hi,
.Just as follow-up to Paul's email re the 6th C. possible meteorite, can I
just give you a couple of quotes from The Anglo-Saxon chronicles, which were
contemporary notes compiled over a period starting about 800ad to 1100ad by
the monastic population here in the UK.
First thing that becomes apparent to me when I read over the mss. is that
for most of the period covered by the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, it is a time
when there are actually gaps in the nearly perfect consecutive records, and
that all the source documents (remember, several copies of the records were
made in several monasteries).

538(ad): Here 14 days before 1 March the sun grew dark from early morning
until 9am.
(Winchester Mss, Cambridge, Corpus Christie MS173, ff 1(v)32(r))

540: Here on 20 June the sun grew dark and stars appeared for well-nigh half
a hour after 9am
(Winchester Mss, Cambridge, Corpus Christie MS173, ff 1(v)32(r))

For possible causes see Stothers & Rampino, "Volcanic eruptions in the
Mediterranean before A.D. 630", 6357-71 (6362). for a simple list of such
phenomena see Britton, " Meteorological Chronology, passim.
It's a lot easier to read than the Germanic middle English/Latin it was
originally written in, believe me! You don't have to learn a new language!
 
Almost the same quote is in the Peterborough manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian
Library MS Laud 636)

Note that there 2 separate events here described here, separated by 2 years
and borne out by dendrochronological work carried out in oak from Irish bogs
which show something certainly happened, but who knows what?!


As if life in those days was not hard enough....!

Sorry for OT post.


Best!
dave
IMCA #0092
Sec. BIMS
www.bimsociety.org
Received on Fri 21 Jul 2006 11:03:44 AM PDT