Dark Age

1. also dark age
   1. An era of ignorance, superstition, or social chaos or repression. Often used in the plural: a novel depicting the dark ages in the aftermath of a global war.
   2. The early or crude stage in the history or development of something. Often used in the plural: back in the dark ages of radio technology.
2. Dark Ages
   1. The period in Europe from the fall of Rome in the fifth century A.D. to the restoration of relative political stability around the year 1000; the early part of the Middle Ages.
   2. The entire Middle Ages, especially when viewed as a troubled period marked by the loss of classical learning. No longer in use by historians.

A term deployed in the 17th and 18th cents. to indicate the intellectual darkness which was believed to have descended on Europe with the ending of the Roman empire until new light was provided by the Renaissance. In the field of British history it is sometimes applied just to the 5th and 6th cents., which many historians would prefer to designate as sub- or post-Roman.

Dark Age (s) .This term is applied to various turbulent periods of history when civilization was endangered and few records handed down. In the ancient world it refers to the following two periods.1. In Greece, the period from, very roughly, the twelfth to the ninth century BC. It begins with the invasions that resulted in the final destruction of Mycenae and ends with the emergence of Athens as a cultural force in Greece.

2. In the later Roman empire, the period of the barbarian invasions and their aftermath, very roughly from the sixth to the ninth century AD.

A term sometimes applied to the early Middle Ages, the first few centuries after the Fall of Rome. The term suggests prevailing ignorance and barbarism, but there were forces for culture and enlightenment throughout the period.