Why Were The Middle Ages Called The Dark Ages
Olivia Luz
The dark ages is a historical periodization traditionally referring to the early middle ages or middle ages that asserts that a demographic cultural and economic deterioration occurred in western europe following the decline of the roman empire the term employs traditional light versus darkness imagery to contrast the era s darkness lack of records with earlier and later periods of.
Dr marc morris is an historian and broadcaster specialising in the middle ages. The period was originally called the dark ages because there are considerably fewer surviving written primary sources available from the era than in the periods immediately before and after. The dark ages lasted from 476 1066. While it s true that such innovations as roman concrete were lost and the literacy rate was not as high in the early middle ages as in ancient rome the idea of the so called dark ages.
Later on as more evidence came to light after the 18th century scholars started to restrict the term dark ages to the period between the 5th and 10th centuries. The middle ages brought great change to europe in many respects including social mobility politics and the way of life. Nowadays medieval historians usually call this period the early middle ages rather than the dark ages. By the nineteenth century the dark ages and the middle ages meant the same thing.
It refers to the period of time between the fall of the roman empire and the beginning of the italian renaissance and the age. The dark ages is a term often used synonymously with the middle ages. There are 2 reasons for the dark ages being called so petrarch a 14th century italian scholar created the term he felt there were 3 ages of man hence the second one being the middle age the first was the classical age this was an age of greek and roman art and culture after the fall of the western roman empire in the 5th century 470 s what followed was an age where there was little or. Since then historians have become more positive about the medieval period and its achievements and the idea that people were living in the dark ages is getting used less and less at least among academic medievalists.
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