The “Dark Ages” is the biggest myth. People picture a dead, ignorant Europe, but it was packed with innovation, trade, scholarship, and cultural fusion.
Yeah, and the term itself was basically Renaissance PR — Petrarch coined it to make his own era look brighter by contrast. Pure marketing.
That gloss over the early medieval period is too neat; gains were slow and uneven, many regions languished, so medieval life is not a simple triumph.
Agree. Another angle: the early Middle Ages were a reboot, where monasteries and guilds preserved craft and knowledge, quietly fueling later revolutions.
