ABSTRACT
It is customary to divide the Middle Ages into an early period, until about 1150, and a late period between 1150 and about 1500. Early medieval Europe, which is still sometimes referred to as a “dark” age, managed to break through a number of technological barriers that had held the Romans back. The achievements of early medieval Europe are all the more amazing because many of the ingredients that are usually thought of as essential to technological progress were absent. Particularly during the first three centuries, between 500 and 800 a.d., the economic and cultural environment in Europe was primitive compared to the classical period. Literacy had become rare, and the upper classes devoted themselves to the subtle art of hacking each other to pieces with even greater dedication than the Romans. Commerce and communications, both short- and long-distance, declined to a trickle. The proud roads, bridges, aqueducts, ports, cities, and villas of the Roman Empire fell largely in disrepair. Law enforcement and the security of life and property became more and more precarious as predators from afar and nearby descended upon Europe with a violence and frequency that Roman citizens had not known. And yet toward the end of the dark ages, in the eighth and ninth centuries, this society began to show the first signs of what eventually became an astounding technological creativity. Not the amusing toys of Alexandria's engineers or the war engines of Archimedes, but useful tools and ideas that reduced the daily toil and increased the material comfort of the masses, even when population began to expand after 900 a.d. Compare the progress achieved in technology in the seven centuries between 300 b.c. and 400 a.d. with that of the seven centuries between 700 and 1400 a.d., and prejudice against the Middle Ages dissipates rapidly.
