Comment by kennywinker

The dark ages simply refers to the loss of texts. There are few surviving texts from that period, so it is “dark”. Later the term was re-branded to mean “bad time when no new science was done” but that’s a viewpoint that doesn’t fit the facts.

Source (a very enjoyable read at that!): https://going-medieval.com/2017/05/26/theres-no-such-thing-a...