Which is why "Late Antiquity" is the preferred descriptor for the Third to Seventh Centuries, A.D.
But there are periods for which "Dark Ages" fit pretty well, at least for me.
Sub-Roman Britain is one of those periods. The reality is, we have almost no contemporary writings which describe Britain after the withdrawal of the Roman legions. And what we have, while helpful, was not meant to be a history.
The archaeological evidence, while tantalizing, is also tough to interpret, though it can allow for estimates of times of occupation, the arrival of newcomers and related conclusions.
It was truly a dark age, at least as far as trying to understand it in any depth goes.
But occasionally there's a really interesting find, and archaeologists dug up a great one at Hadrian's Wall: a chalice from a Sixth Century church.
During a recent archaeological dig of a rubble filled building, now known to be the remains of a 6th century Christian church, the researchers across 14 fragmentary remains of an incredibly rare lead Christian cup or chalice. Although in very poor condition due to its proximity to the surface of the ground, each fragment of the vessel was found to be covered by lightly etched symbols, each representing different forms of Christian iconography from the time.
The marks appear to have been added, both to the outside and the inside of this cup, by the same hand or artist and although they are now difficult to see with the naked eye, with the aid of specialist photography, the symbols have been carefully recorded and work has started on a new journey of discovery to unlock their meanings. The etchings include some well-known symbols from the early church including ships, crosses and chi-rho, fish, a whale, a happy bishop, angels, members of a congregation, letters in Latin, Greek and potentially Ogam.
I thought it was called the dark ages because there were so many knights.
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