Who ruled
- Rouran Khaganate Anagui 520–552
- Sasanian Persia Khosrow I 531–579
And beyond the steppe
- China Eastern Wei Emperor Xiaojing 534–550 · Western Wei Emperor Wen 535–551
- Iran Sasanian Khosrow I 531–579
- Korea Goguryeo Anwon 531–545
- Byzantium Justinian Justinian I 527–565
Eastern steppe
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Environment · Extreme weather in the eastern steppe, by the tree rings; one reading takes the six-year length of Bumin's war as a consequence (536–545)
The Turkic War of Independence
The same decade is the coldest of two thousand years by the tree rings of the Altai and by the ice cores
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Environment · Late Antique Little Ice Age: the cold phase the Altai tree rings define from 536 to about 660 (536–660)
Climate and the steppe empires · First Göktürk Khaganate · Avars
The coldest decade in the Altai is the 540s
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Environment · A tropical eruption, larger than Tambora in its aerosol; summers cold again from 541 to almost 550
Climate and the steppe empires · The Turkic War of Independence
Also dated 539 (the Antarctic ice cores): The second episode falls in 539 or 540.
Western steppe
China
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The Rouran cross the Yellow River against the Western Wei; the deposed empress Yifu is ordered to take her life
