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The Dark Ages is a term used to refer to the dark (in the sense of obscure) period in western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, when so-called 'barbarian' - generally non-literate - tribes took over the land formerly in Roman Imperial control. It was a period of wide-scale population movement, particularly, though not uniquely, among Germanic peoples (the voelkerwanderung). The lack of written history during this period, combined with political and social instability, meant that relatively little was known about events. Though archaeological finds have changed this situation to some extent, much of the darkness remains.

There is no clear starting point, or ending point for the 'Dark Ages', though the half-millennium period from the Vandal sack of Rome (455CE) to the year 1000CE is roughly consistent with common usage.

The negative connotations of the expression have made Dark Ages unpopular among historians of this period. The term Early Medieval is often preferred. The continuities between Dark Age society and late imperial Rome have been stressed by some writers, who wish to emphasise that Medieval culture was already developing in the empire, and indeed continued to do so in the unconquered eastern (Byzantine) portion of the empire. However, many of the tribes who took over imperial land were initially pagan. The development of a solidly Christian Europe, in opposition to an Islamic empire based in North Africa and the Middle East marks a major cultural and political shift as does the development of the feudal system. With this, and the cultural developments after the Carolingian Renaissance, the concept of the Dark Ages ceases to be meaningful.

The image of constant barbarian warfare amid the ruins of the Roman empire continues to influence the popular conception of the Dark Ages, as embodied in the stories and films about ‘Conan the barbarian’. The literature of King Arthur also emerges from this confused period, as ‘civilised’ urban and Christian Roman cultures attempted to defend themselves against expanding pagan tribes. The struggle between Christian and magical-pagan belief systems in the Arthurian romances epitomises this.