User talk:Crotalus horridus/Dark Ages

Cause of Dark Ages

I a couples of quibbles with your proposal. First off, the Xiongnu = Huns stuff is way outdated scholarship. Some historian in the 18th century came up with this idea. As Britannica says, "Hsiung-nu, known earlier to the Chinese, are sometimes called Huns, but their relationship to the invaders of Europe is uncertain." The Xiongnu were probably Mongols and while the Huns are thought to have been Turkic.

The repeated waves of invasion made the leisured Roman lifestyle unfeasible. The Roman cities were depopulated before the barbarians arrived. IMO, the most likely explanation is climate change. There was a Dark Ages Cold Period and we are talking about a period when agriculture was the predominant lifestyle. Almost all the historical data we have concerns cities, but these were parasitic economically and could exist only because of the Roman taxation system.

Other than that, I think it looks good and I hope you can merge it with the EMA article. Those people on "talk:Dark Ages", they're just impervious to evidence. It's like they are afraid people from the Dark Ages will feel insulted or something. Kauffner (talk) 03:31, 28 September 2008 (UTC)