[LS]

"Dark Ages" are a myth concocted by liberal historians. There was a terrific amount of progress in the "Dark Ages," more so than in the Islamic world:

padded horse collars, crop rotation, three field crop system, eyeglasses, dual entry bookkeeping, bills of exchange, waterwheels, harmony, polyphony, harpsichords, pipe organs, wah wah pedals . . . . ah, I made the last one up.

See Rodney Stark, "The Victory of Reason."

Socially the term slave disappeared from the language altogether. Politically you had the Magna Charta and title deeds. Altogether a period of great advance despite the Black Plague.

[grey_whiskers]

I learned a fair amount of that from playing Microsoft's Age of Empires...

Cheers!