4 ms·

Only the early middle ages were actually the "dark ages" (roughly 500AD to 1000AD, I think). They are called that only because of the relative lack of written m

Only the early middle ages were actually the "dark ages" (roughly 500AD to 1000AD, I think). They are called that only because of the relative lack of written material we have from that time.

pelasaco 3y ago
Is that your interpretation, or you read it somewhere? I'm not saying that you are wrong, just that you find others interpretations - those that I was mentioning and that concerns me - everywhere. stuff like, "The Middle Ages are often said to be dark because of a supposed lack of scientific and cultural advancement. During this time, feudalism was the dominant political system" is pretty common, even Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)
- lliamander 3y ago
  If you look at the Wikipedia entry you cite, the very first clause of the first sentence is: "The Dark Ages is a term for the Early Middle Ages" That is the normal understanding of "dark ages" among historians.
  - pelasaco 3y ago
    Did you read the whole sentence? "The Dark Ages is a term for the Early Middle Ages, or occasionally the entire Middle Ages, in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire that characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual and cultural decline." So the term is highly disputed and what I understood from there, is that no historian TODAY use Dark ages to describe any moment of the Middle Ages. At least not the serious historians. I'm not Historian, I'm computer scientist and Philosopher. Dark Ages for me is first connected with the Greek Dark Ages, or Digital Dark Ages.
- shjake 3y ago
  The scientific advancement claim is weird. It was also very slow during ancient Greek/Roman times and technological progress remained a somewhat foreign concept. Arguably European/Byzantine society was already quite a bit more advanced in many areas by the 1100s. And the dark ages ended with the Carolingian renaissance. If an ancient work copied by the 900s AD or so the chances that it survived until our day is relatively high, if not.. well it’s gone.

Only the early middle ages were actually the "dark ages" (roughly 500AD to 1000AD, I think). They are called that only because of the relative lack of written material we have from that time.

pelasaco 3y ago

Is that your interpretation, or you read it somewhere? I'm not saying that you are wrong, just that you find others interpretations - those that I was mentioning and that concerns me - everywhere. stuff like, "The Middle Ages are often said to be dark because of a supposed lack of scientific and cultural advancement. During this time, feudalism was the dominant political system" is pretty common, even Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)

lliamander 3y ago
If you look at the Wikipedia entry you cite, the very first clause of the first sentence is: "The Dark Ages is a term for the Early Middle Ages" That is the normal understanding of "dark ages" among historians.
- pelasaco 3y ago
  Did you read the whole sentence? "The Dark Ages is a term for the Early Middle Ages, or occasionally the entire Middle Ages, in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire that characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual and cultural decline." So the term is highly disputed and what I understood from there, is that no historian TODAY use Dark ages to describe any moment of the Middle Ages. At least not the serious historians. I'm not Historian, I'm computer scientist and Philosopher. Dark Ages for me is first connected with the Greek Dark Ages, or Digital Dark Ages.
shjake 3y ago
The scientific advancement claim is weird. It was also very slow during ancient Greek/Roman times and technological progress remained a somewhat foreign concept. Arguably European/Byzantine society was already quite a bit more advanced in many areas by the 1100s. And the dark ages ended with the Carolingian renaissance. If an ancient work copied by the 900s AD or so the chances that it survived until our day is relatively high, if not.. well it’s gone.