> the long Middle Ages when technology went backward What do you mean by that? There was a decline but Europe had more or less rebounded by the 11th century or

> the long Middle Ages when technology went backward What do you mean by that? There was a decline but Europe had more or less rebounded by the 11th century or so. Yes extreme decentralization meant that urbanization levels remained low and funding for major project was usually limited but overall the level of technological advancement was higher in many (and probably most) areas compared to the Roman times. Especially in fields like metallurgy where Romans were mostly surpassed even during the "dark ages". Agriculture was generally more advanced, medieval societies were probably more industrialized as well (e.g. watermills became much more widespread and were used for processing wool, forging etc.). Also when we imagine medieval Europe most people are probably mainly thinking about Britain, France & Germany which were backwater economic and social backwaters (besides Italy the core areas of the empire: Greece, Anatolia, Egypt were not part of Catholic Western Europe).