IOWC Speaker Series - "Volcanic Cluster, Archival Absence: The Case of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Batavia"

Hannah Sparwasser Soroka History & Classical Studies, McGill University

This talk investigates the relative archival silence regarding the seventeenth-century volcanic cluster in the Dutch East Indies. While the geological record confirms that there were at least four significant volcanic eruptions in the region during the 1630s and 40s, Durch East India Company (VOC) archival records remain largely silent on these events. In this talk, I navigate this archival absence and use natural proxies to take some preliminary steps towards determining the local and regional effects of these volcanic eruptions.