I'm pretty sure most people call them "Dark Ages" because during this time the speed of social and scientific development almost entirely stopped.
replyAnd mind you, I'm not saying that it stopped _completely_, but it slowed down to a crawl.
> social and scientific development almost entirely stopped
replyWell it did in fact sped to an almost unparalleled pace after 1000 AD or so. How much progress do you think there was before the dark ages? The Roman Empire was rather stagnant (especially technologically and there were significant advances in agriculture, metallurgy and industry in the dark ages even before even before 1000 AD