[blam]

"Why do they still call it the Dark Ages despite the wealth of recent evidence that it wasn't all that "dark?" I have to wonder how Stirling circa 600 would compare with - for the sake of argument - Kandahar today."

What wealth of evidence?

I believe it was called the Dark Ages because it was dark. I believe there were numerous celestial impact events that created a dust veil over the whole earth. Probably a terrible time on earth.

[niteowl77]

The humanists of the Renaissance were very successful in denigrating everything that existed between their self-aggrandizing zenith and the height of the Roman Empire. A time when the so-called lamps of learning and civilization were supposedly extinguished, the "Dark Ages" was - for them - metaphoric, not literal. For centuries, it was convenient to tag everything in "pre-enlightened" Northern Europe as worthless and devoid of any real culture. Be that as it may, archaeological finds have tended to show otherwise.

As for actual physical darkness, I won't speculate. No doubt life was dim enough under the mud and thatch, but life has been "nasty, short, and brutish" for most of the planet, most of the time.

[monday]

"I believe it was called the Dark Ages because it was dark. "

LOL....hey, who turned out the lights?

[wolfcreek]

“numerous celestial impact”

Add those to our current cultural decline and we could have DAII.