(Inside Science) —  By examining the literal dustbins of history, archaeologists have now shed light on how a 125-year “little ice age” might have wreaked havoc on the Byzantine Empire — an example of how climate change might influence human civilization.

Although the Roman Empire is often said to have fallen in 476 A.D., that was only the end of its western part. Its richer, stronger eastern half continued as the Byzantine Empire for almost another thousand years until it fell to the O