The typical thought of the average person is that these Ages
were Dark because Christianity was beating up on everyone and everything.
Defined various as the 10th to the 11th
Centuries, the 5th through the 10th Centuries, the 6th
through the 13th Centuries, 11 through the 13th
Centuries, many modern scholars have done away with the label altogether.
As well, in some undefined future, there will come a time when “it might not be
possible to read historical digital documents” during a Digital Dark Age.
While it’s certain that the Church did some horrendous deeds
between 600 AD and 1400 AD – things like the Crusades (1065 to 1291); the Inquisition
(1300 to 1500); and perhaps even the Salem Witch Trials (part of a larger Great
Witch Craze of Europe that lasted from the 15th through the 18th
Centuries – the Dark Ages had little to do with the Church. What it DID have to
do with was transmission of information.
According to the infinite fount of knowledge, Wikipedia says
that the Dark Ages are characterized by “...the decline of the Roman Empire...light-versus-darkness
imagery to contrast the ‘darkness’ of the period with earlier and later periods
of ‘light’...a relative scarcity of historical and other written records at
least for some areas of Europe...the lack of Latin literature...of contemporary
written history, general demographic decline, limited building activity and
material cultural achievements...[and] a time of backwardness...”
As well, “there was no Rome of the kind that ruled the
Mediterranean for centuries and spawned the culture that produced twenty-eight
public libraries...As the West crumbled, books and libraries flourished and
flowed east toward the Byzantine Empire...medieval monasteries began to
accumulate large libraries. These libraries were devoted solely to the
education of the monks and were seen as essential to their spiritual development...the
Imperial Library of Constantinople had 120,000 volumes and was the largest
library in Europe. A fire in 477, 726, and 1204 consumed the entire library…and
in 1453...Constantinople fell...[by] the 7th century...many of [the library at
Thomaites Triclinus]’s contents were subject to destruction as religious
in-fighting ultimately resulted in book burnings...During this period, small
private libraries existed. Many of these were owned by church members and the
aristocracy. Teachers also were known to have small personal libraries as well
as wealthy bibliophiles who could afford the highly ornate books of the period...the
library at Vivarium was dispersed and lost within a century…By the 9th century
public libraries started to appear in many Islamic cities...many of these
libraries were destroyed by Mongol invasions. Others were victim of wars and
religious strife in the Islamic world. However...the libraries of Chinguetti in
West Africa, remain intact and relatively unchanged. Another ancient library
from this period which is still operational and expanding is the Central
Library of Astan Quds Razavi in the Iranian city of Mashhad, which has been
operating for more than six centuries…The contents of these Islamic libraries
were copied by Christian monks in Muslim/Christian border areas, particularly
Spain and Sicily. From there they eventually made their way into other parts of
Christian Europe. These copies joined works that had been preserved directly by
Christian monks from Greek and Roman originals, as well as copies Western
Christian monks made of Byzantine works. The resulting conglomerate libraries
are the basis of every modern library today…Buddhist scriptures, educational
materials, and histories were stored in libraries in pre-modern Southeast Asia.
In Burma, a royal library called the Pitaka Taik was legendarily founded by
King Anawrahta; in the 18th century...‘his Birman majesty may possess a more
numerous library than any potentate, from the banks of the Danube to the
borders of China’. In Thailand libraries called ho trai were built throughout the country, usually on stilts above
a pond to prevent bugs from eating at the books.’”
So…the Dark Ages were anything BUT dark! There were setbacks
as well as advances, but overall, the current opinion that “many modern
scholars who study the era tend to avoid the term altogether for its negative
connotations, finding it misleading and inaccurate for any part of the Middle
Ages”.
As to a fear of a Digital Dark Age? There’s very good
evidence that no matter WHAT the technophillic Developed Country technophiles
think…if the internet suddenly blew up, all smartphones melted down, and a
massive, alien-induce Electromagnetic Pulse wiped out all “soft” data systems,
we would not INSTANTLY plunge into a knowledgeless, helpless, hopeless,
disconnected, vapid Dark Age.
If the Mongol Hordes couldn’t destroy all information, then I
doubt very much that the loss of the Internet will precipitate such an event,
either. Your insights?
