Pejorative historical terms

This actually is for the writers. I am binge watching season 3. In the episode Die Trying we get an I'll Informed speech from Saru about the Daaarrrk Ages.
Please writers stop this. Modern Historians do not use this term anymore. It is now the Pre Medieval period. It was not a time of darkness. It was a time of improvements to agriculture, water mills, the beginning of the abolition of slavery in Europe.
Europe created innovations the Muslims knew nothing about.
Compare this to Rome where a visit to the temple of Saturn was accompanied by human sacrifice. I consider the period after paganism to be the first rays of dawn.
Attack me. I will not reply.

 

I thought „Dark Ages“ referred to the Middle Ages, not pre-middle-ages.

 

As a layperson, interested in history and archaeology, i have never heard this before. As far as i know human sacrice wasn't a big part of imperial roman culture, but it can be argued that the execution of war captives at the end of a triumph might be an exception.

In most cases the accusations of human sacrifice in the roman empire were simply christian propaganda. Nothing more.

Or were there new discoveries that i haven't heard of?

And by the way, wasn't it actually the opposite with the muslims? Most of the times when the middle ages or specially the era of the crusades comes up, there is a focus on how much more advanced they were in medicine, technology and the arts.

 

Not sure they post here.
Last time I checked, the Roman Empire was Christianized for Centuries before it's fall and was a key factor in spreading Christianity throughout Europe. So you're probably not going to find much human sacrifice to Saturn in the Rome prior to the Middle Ages.

 

Can we get some fact checking on the OP's post please?

 

Superb conversation-starter to open a thread with.

 

I think the OP was concerned about personal attacks, but yeah it would be nice if she would reply.

 

They're right about the term falling into disfavor. But its a term that's gone through a lot of change over the centuries of use.

The time prior to the Middle Ages seems to be called Late Antiquity.

 

I admit that I use the term "Dark Ages", but I always use it to mean just Europe from 476 AD to 1000. Which is selling innovations from the second half of the First Millennium CE short, but it's the quickest way to get the most people to know where and when I'm talking about. It's a short-hand that's not completely accurate but gets the job done in casual conversation.

I'll use "Middle Ages" to refer to the entire period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire up until the Renaissance took hold.

 

Let's see.

Correct.

Incorrect. The era is firmly Early Medieval, with the transitionary era of the Migration Period, and Late Antiquity, but the 'Dark Ages' of C. 476-1066 or so is Early Medieval.

There were some improvements to agriculture, such as the Ottonian Renaissance which saw more horses used than oxen, Watermills are a Greco-Roman invention that simply took off, and the Muslims DID know about them since they were in constant contact with the Eastern Roman Empire and applied them thusly.

Nor was it the beginning of abolition of Slavery in Europe: it would persist, and again, transform - what is Serfdom? What was the plight of the land-bound, villa-bound Coloni of the late Empire? This is a debate that rages until this day, and slavery by itself, thralldom, chattel slavery, would continue throughout the High Medieval Era - William the Conqueror, for instance, simply banned its export, but it would continue (along with Serfdom) long after the doomsday book of 1086. Italy itself was a major player of the slave Trade (Venice, Amalfi), the Gaels and Norse kept slaves up to the 900s-1000s, and to say nothing of Christians buying and using Muslim slaves, especially in Southern France and Iberia, or German enslavement of Pagan Slavs. But so far, OP seems to like Pagans being thrashed and Christianity can do no wrong?

There is no record of Human sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn. As said above, sometimes Triumphs would end with ritualistic choking of captives, but this was a practice that died out long before the Roman Empire did. And that was at the Temple of Jupiter. This statement reeks of Christian Propaganda, of which there was much (along with revisions of older texts) during the transition era, but even this claim seems oddly particular and obscure, I can't find anything about the Temple of Saturn or Saturn himself related to human sacrifice...?

Firstly, no one is going to 'attack you', that seems to be a thing you're expecting. Like you make this post, obstinately on one thing, then go a pro European-Christian rant, and expect to be attacked for that. Sounds like a 'you' problem.

And then why the frak are you on a discussion board? Not to be attacked, no, but to discuss, at least? A star trek board, no less. You're a bit closed minded, and that's unbecoming of a Trekker, no?

Do you really think the DIS writers come here to look at feedback? They wrote in the term 'Dark Ages' because they're using the LCD and simplest form to convey information to their audience. They know what that means as a shorthand. And 'Dark Ages' is still a term we use liberally: The Bronze Dark Ages, Mayan Dark Ages, Irish, all of which we know are bogus, but still holdfast even in Academic and especially Lay circles.

Maybe Saru is even referring to the Digital Dark Ages of the Post-Atomic and 21st Century Era, which is a real concern.... It would explain why everyone goes up to the 90s and nothing from the 21st century is even mentioned beyond the war, hah.

 

So, did the OP just explicitly announce that this topic is a drive-by?

 

I mean, Spock calls it a strange and violent time. So maybe that is the explanation.

 

I found the use of the term in that episode pretty objectionable, but that was more to do with the eurocentrism of it than anything.

The years 500 to 1000 CE were pretty effing awful for Christian Europe. But the Islamic world reached its cultural and scientific zenith, and China did pretty decently during this period as well.

 

Is it ironic that a poster named “Voodoo” is worried about pejorative terms? Am I just to old to get you kids and your hip young slang?

 

That's some whack diggity-dank, yo.

 

'Sup with the whack Playstation 'sup?

 

I think we've all seen the types of posts like the one from the OP, on many, many message boards. Posts like these aren't meant to start a discussion. They are a (ultimately pointless) rant. It's lobbing a verbal grenade into the room and then running off giggling at the potential chaos they've attempted.

 

I expect a detailed response from the OP to this video that I found in a random Youtube search that required ten seconds.

I'm going to refer to it as "research."

 

Well, I'm not much of a history buff, I'm decent at American history, but the rest of the world history I'm a bit moronic on it, and I didn't notice or care about the "Dark Ages" quote.
Untill this thread I didn't even know the time period it encompassed. or when the renaissance happened.. ... I might need to pick up a history book instead of a sci fi book..