[cyberax]

I'm pretty sure most people call them "Dark Ages" because during this time the speed of social and scientific development almost entirely stopped.

And mind you, I'm not saying that it stopped _completely_, but it slowed down to a crawl.

[garciansmith]

I would agree that many people view the Middle Ages as a static time, though a point I was trying to make was that the "Dark Ages" can mean different things depending on the person and context.

But more importantly it wasn't static (or "almost entirely stopped")! It's an erroneous conception that, as I said, started with people who lived in the Middle Ages. People in the Renaissance and Early Modern Period would often repeat this, so now many people do too. That doesn't make it correct.

[wqaatwt]

> social and scientific development almost entirely stopped

Well it did in fact sped to an almost unparalleled pace after 1000 AD or so. How much progress do you think there was before the dark ages? The Roman Empire was rather stagnant (especially technologically and there were significant advances in agriculture, metallurgy and industry in the dark ages even before even before 1000 AD