[blam]

"Measles and smallpox may have come from China, but recently I learned that the first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague was at Rhapta, Tanzania (modern Zanzibar) in 536 A.D. Therefore the Black Death probably came from the same Equatorial African "hot zone" as AIDS, ebola and the Marburg virus. "

A lot was happening at that time.

The Dark Ages: Were They Darker Than We Imagined?

Most of the human affecting diseases will come from Africa, they've had millions of years there to infect humans/primates.

[Berosus]

Yes, there is a connection, date-wise. I became a believer in the sixth century A.D. catastrophe theory last spring, after reading this thread in another forum ( http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=116880 ), and checking one of my textbooks to see what the Mayans were doing at that time. It said that no records of any events were kept at the city of Tikal between 534 and 593 A.D. Since 534 is close enough to the target date of 535 for whatever happened, be it a comet collision, volcanic eruption or whatever, that was the clincher for me.