TOP 10 DARK AGES

 

After the fall, comes the darkness – and a shallow dip top ten on the spot for my Top 10 Dark Ages!

As I said in my entry for the Dark Age in my Top 10 Ages, while it is most commonly used for the period of (western) European history after the fall of the (western) Roman Empire, it is more broadly used for other periods of perceived decline or collapse – or those marked by a comparative scarcity of historical records.

All entries are ranked B-tier or high tier.

 

(1) EUROPEAN DARK AGE

 

Yes – top spot has to go to the Dark Age that everyone thinks of when you refer to Dark Age, a term for the early Middle Ages (500-1000 AD) or even the entire Middle Ages (500-1500 AD) in European history.

Not surprisingly, it was a term not used by the people that lived in it, and tends not to be used now for that period of European history because of its negative connotations – which perhaps misses out on its cooler connotations and for that matter its continued usage in popular culture or imagination.

 

(2) BRONZE AGE COLLAPSE

 

The original Dark Age in the Bronze Age – a period of “sudden, violent and culturally disruptive” societal collapse across the eastern Mediterranean and ancient Near East in the twelfth century BC.

It saw glittering Bronze Age civilizations such as Mycenaean Greece and the Hittite Empire – effectively the combatants of the Trojan War, given Troy has been conjectured as a Hittite satellite – collapse, while even heavy hitters like Egypt barely squeaked through it.

The Bronze Age was not exactly prolific in its historical records even at its height (being more a matter of archaeology) so the Bronze Age Collapse gets pretty dark for historical records – such that much about it is hypothesis, including the infamous Sea Peoples believed to have played a large part in it.

 

(3) GREEK DARK AGES

 

Overlapping with the previous entry for the Bronze Age Collapse, the Greek Dark Ages is – or at least was – a term used for the period from the Bronze Age Collapse to archaic classical Greece, from about 1100 BC to 750 BC.

Earlier divided into the Postpalatial Bronze Age (1180-1050 BC) and the Prehistoric or Early Iron Age of Greek history (1050-800 BC), but now being abandoned as our own conception with neither period truly as “obscure”.

This is why we can’t have dark ages.

 

(4) BYZANTINE DARK AGES

 

“Historiographical term for the period in the history of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire from around c. 630 to the 760s”

Well, it’s only fair that the eastern Roman Empire should have its own Dark Ages to match that of the western Roman Empire, albeit not coinciding with the latter since it avoided the same political collapse as its western counterpart – and even expanded its control into the former western empire.

However, its turn came with its own near collapse and radical transformation from defeat in the Muslim conquests of the 7^th century, following hard on the heels of the final Byzantine-Sassanid War – although at least they could say you should see the other guy, being the Persian Sassanid Empire that collapsed completely to Muslim conquest.

“It was still recognizably the late antique world dominated by the Roman Empire, with the Mediterranean mare nostrum as its center of gravity…The final Byzantine-Sassanid War weakened this world, but the Muslim conquests of the 7th century shattered it for good. The emergent caliphate was not only far more powerful and threatening than Persia had ever been, but it also shattered the political unity of the Mediterranean world…Byzantium was left territorially crippled, reduced to the status of a peripheral power, and on a permanent defensive against invaders from all sides.”

The eastern Roman Empire was radically transformed, marking “the transition between the late antique early Byzantine period and the “medieval” middle Byzantine era” – so much so that historian Peter Heather opined that the eastern empire effectively became another Roman successor state and even historian Adrian Goldsworthy noted it was permanently transformed from classical superpower to regional power.

It also has that usual proposed feature of a dark Age or dark ages – “a paucity of primary historical sources”

 

(5) DARK AGE OF THE PAPACY – “SAECULUM OBSCURAM”

 

Saeculum obscurum, which might loosely translate to dark age – entertainingly “also known as the Rule of the Harlots or the P0rnocracy” (which sadly seems to be a metaphor rather than actual description) and which “was a period in the history of the papacy during the first two thirds of the 10th century” usually seen as the nadir of the papacy in which popes were elected from or controlled by a powerful Roman aristocratic family.

And for a period to be seen as the nadir of the papacy is up against some stiff competition in an institution that fell under the control of the Borgias during the Renaissance.

 

(6) PARTHIAN DARK AGE

 

Term used for “a period of three decades in the history of the Parthian Empire between the death (or last years) of Mithridates II in 91 BC, and the accession to the throne of Orodes II in 57 BC…due to a lack of clear information on the events of this period in the empire”

 

(7) IRISH DARK AGE

 

Term coined by Oxford historian Thomas Charles-Edwards “to refer to a period of apparent economic and cultural stagnation in late prehistoric Ireland, lasting from c. 100 BC to c. AD 300”

 

(8) BRITISH DARK AGE – SUB-ROMAN BRITAIN

 

Okay, okay – the British Dark Age is part of the wider European Dark Age, albeit somewhat preceding it by close to a century due to Roman rule in Britain ending earlier, at latest in 407-410 AD and perhaps even effectively or in large part from 383 AD (when the usurper Magnus Maximus withdrew Roman forces from northern and western Britain to launch his bid for imperial power).

However, I think it deserves its own place in my top ten for three reasons.

Firstly, Britain seems to have a prominence within the wider Dark Age.

Secondly, I just like the term sub-Roman Britain which is a large part of the British Dark Age.

Thirdly because King Arthur, that’s why.

 

(9) CAMBODIAN DARK AGES

 

A term occasionally used for the post-Khmer period or so-called Middle Period of Cambodia, from the end of the Khmer Empire in the 1431 to the start of Cambodia as French protectorate in 1863 – a period not only of imperial decline and fall but also, you guessed it, a lack of reliable historical sources.

Also a term used, aptly enough, for the apocalyptic Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot.

 

(10) DIGITAL DARK AGE

 

One might think this is a term in anticipation of a post-apocalyptic society if ever some event, the equivalent of a global EMP, wiped out computers and computer records – particularly if it did so permanently.

Although not entirely unrelated, it is in fact a term used for “a lack of historical information in the digital age as a direct result of outdated file formats, software, or hardware that becomes corrupt, scarce, or inaccessible as technologies evolve and data decays. Future generations may find it difficult or impossible to retrieve electronic documents and multimedia, because they have been recorded in an obsolete and obscure file format, or on an obsolete physical medium…there could be a relative lack of records in the digital age as documents are transferred to digital formats and original copies are lost.