 The 14C reconstruction of activity over the last 11,000 years shows no period significantly higher than the present; in fact, the general level of activity in the second half of the 20th century was the highest since 9000 BC.In particular, the activity in the period around the AD 774 14C event (averaged over decades) was somewhat lower than the long-term average, while the AD 993 event coincided with a small minimum.A more detailed scrutiny of the period AD 731 to 825, combining several 14C datasets of one- and two-year resolution with auroral and sunspot accounts does show a general increase in solar activity (from a low level) after about AD 733, reaching its highest level after 757 and remaining high in the 760s and 770s; there were several aurorae around this time, and even a low-latitude aurora in China.