The Dark Age ? What do you know about it ?

[davidsheep88]

Here we will go to see about the time of the dark ages after the giants of the bible and also after the fall of Rome. And we will ask what other dark ages happen even talk about why, the happen ?

 

[davidsheep88]

 

[Thomas]

There's a lot wrong with this presentation ...
,

 

[Faithfulservant]

I just binge watched The Last Kingdom and the subsequent movie. I know it's fiction based on history but it was interesting to learn how England came to be.

 

[davidsheep88]

 

[davidsheep88]

The Biblical Flood -

 

[davidsheep88]

There have been various dark age where civilizations ceases to exist and time was lost.

 

[Thomas]

There's a lot of conspiracy theory nonsense here ... just flagging it up ...

 

[davidsheep88]

Oh well is it in another section then ? I do apologize just wanted to talk things off normal stuff.

 

[moralorel]

One of the greatest classes I ever took in college was the History of Medieval Art. Even with that name, the semester began with the earliest known art forms (Venus statues, cave paintings, etc.) and concluded with 20th century art. It may have been an art class, but it was the most informative history class I ever attended. When it comes to art, there was no such thing as a "dark age". The art was beautiful and amazing. It wasn't a dark age because it was a terrible time period. It was dark because Rome fell and along with Rome went their record-keeping. There was a lot going on in Europe during this period and it wasn't dark compared to any other age.

But that was what I learned in that class.

 

[Thomas]

As ever, people assume that because written materials are lost, there's a conspiracy at play ...

It's worth noting there is not one Renaissance – scholars generally identify:
The Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries),
The Ottonian Renaissance (10th century),
The Medieval Renaissance (12th century),
The Italian Renaissance (14th-15th centuries).

All were marked by a period of renewal in the arts, literature, architecture, education, etc.

Meanwhile we had a 'Little Ice Age', pandemics and other stuff to deal with.

On the downside, with the collapse of the Empire and the emergence of European dynasties and nationalism, wars become really something awful.

In the Dark Ages video above, the narrator talks of Petrarch – but he was a romantic who idealised Greek and Roman culture with scant actual knowledge of it. Meanwhile we had Platonism and Aristotelianism alive and well in the universities – but he was alive during the Black Death, a plague that killed 30-60% of the European population, so any other time probably looked more inviting ...

And the old saw of the average age being 30 – again, wrong. Child mortality brought the average down, but if you survived to 20, you could look forward to your three score and ten. Child mortality was no better in Greek and Roman times, nor really improved until more recent times.

 

[juantoo3]

One of the greatest classes I ever took in college was the History of Medieval Art. Even with that name, the semester began with the earliest known art forms (Venus statues, cave paintings, etc.) and concluded with 20th century art. It may have been an art class, but it was the most informative history class I ever attended. When it comes to art, there was no such thing as a "dark age". The art was beautiful and amazing. It wasn't a dark age because it was a terrible time period. It was dark because Rome fell and along with Rome went their record-keeping. There was a lot going on in Europe during this period and it wasn't dark compared to any other age.

But that was what I learned in that class.

I remember a short series on PBS hosted by Sister Wendy Beckett many years ago. For such a brief series she really made me appreciate a good deal more about art.

But I still find myself drawn to the cave paintings. Picasso and Dali (and Escher!) are interesting, Monet and Rembrandt are beautiful, Michelangelo and DaVinci are inspiring...but I always find myself returning to the roots, to the source, and asking "why?" Why did we even bother to begin with?

 

[moralorel]

I remember a short series on PBS hosted by Sister Wendy Beckett many years ago. For such a brief series she really made me appreciate a good deal more about art.

But I still find myself drawn to the cave paintings. Picasso and Dali (and Escher!) are interesting, Monet and Rembrandt are beautiful, Michelangelo and DaVinci are inspiring...but I always find myself returning to the roots, to the source, and asking "why?" Why did we even bother to begin with?

I am impressed by the ancient artwork of sites such as Gobekli Tepe. Humans were supposedly just hunters and gatherers. Yet they put together such amazing artwork at that site. We can only speculate why they put so much effort into the masterpiece. Not bad for stone age hunters.