[astrodust]

There's probably more records remaining than we realize because of the rampant recycling of old parchment.

[ganzuul]

Or they started using papyrus, which does not age well.

AFAIK the 'Dark Ages' refer to our lack of records only, and the rest is misunderstanding.

[astrodust]

What was the prominent writing material in that age? Parchment has been around since basically forever since, like vellum, it's just animal hide.

[FabHK]

Palimpsests are well understood and mostly accounted for, I'd have thought?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest

[astrodust]

I'm not sure you can fully account for them, that would involve a staggering amount of specialized scanning.