The cultural, scientific, economic, social, political collapse of the early medieval period (in the wake of Germanic conquest of the Roman Empire, not merely Christianity as you suggest) at least is undeniable. Varier depending on region, with places like Britain hit worse than the others, so much we don't even have almost any written sources from this period. In other places the forest people civilized themselves by bastardizing Roman culture but didn't do much more than live in a ruin of it, except in Italy where it didn't go near as bad and which is why also the Renaissance began there much earlier than elsewhere. A lot is being said about Irish monks rescuing civilization by copying Ancient books, but Ireland wasn't hit by the Germanics until the Viking Age.
That's all true, but the specific term "dark age" is still a subversive term used to denigrate Christian Europe as a whole. The Italian Renaissance also owes a lot to fall of Constantinople which resulted in a lot of high culture relocating to the Italian city-states.
In certain areas such as agriculture there was more advancement in the dark ages than in five previous centuries of roman rule. The whole dark age motif is very much taken from the age of enlightenment and their love affair with everything ancient roman and greek.
In certain areas such as agriculture there was more advancement in the dark ages than in five previous centuries of roman rule.
That's likely because the end of the roman warm period (which roughly coincided with the end of the western roman empire) basically forced Europe to get good at farming, or die.
And of course we have the Byzantine EmpireEastern Roman Empire Roman Empire, which managed to keep on trucking and remain a cultural and intellectual jewel of Europe and the Mediterranean for centuries after. Too bad the Fourth Crusade fucked its shit up for good
Either way, yeah the light of knowledge dimmed in the 400s but it wasn't completely snuffed out.
The cultural, scientific, economic, social, political collapse of the early medieval period (in the wake of Germanic conquest of the Roman Empire, not merely Christianity as you suggest) at least is undeniable. Varier depending on region, with places like Britain hit worse than the others, so much we don't even have almost any written sources from this period. In other places the forest people civilized themselves by bastardizing Roman culture but didn't do much more than live in a ruin of it, except in Italy where it didn't go near as bad and which is why also the Renaissance began there much earlier than elsewhere. A lot is being said about Irish monks rescuing civilization by copying Ancient books, but Ireland wasn't hit by the Germanics until the Viking Age.
That's all true, but the specific term "dark age" is still a subversive term used to denigrate Christian Europe as a whole. The Italian Renaissance also owes a lot to fall of Constantinople which resulted in a lot of high culture relocating to the Italian city-states.
I guess you may 'blame' a contemporary British chronicle that began with "Days as dark as night", ironically written by probably a cleric.
In certain areas such as agriculture there was more advancement in the dark ages than in five previous centuries of roman rule. The whole dark age motif is very much taken from the age of enlightenment and their love affair with everything ancient roman and greek.
That's likely because the end of the roman warm period (which roughly coincided with the end of the western roman empire) basically forced Europe to get good at farming, or die.
And of course we have the
Byzantine EmpireEastern Roman EmpireRoman Empire, which managed to keep on trucking and remain a cultural and intellectual jewel of Europe and the Mediterranean for centuries after. Too bad the Fourth Crusade fucked its shit up for goodEither way, yeah the light of knowledge dimmed in the 400s but it wasn't completely snuffed out.