Abstract
This paper reviews the Dark Ages, the period from circa 500 AD up to about 1066 AD when William I became Norman king of England, period that is often unjustly been referred to as a largely uneventful epoch in which Europe essentially lost track of its past and ignored its cultural legacy. According to the paper, the truth is somewhat more complex and it now seems evident that the Dark Ages were a period wherein concerted and dynamic efforts were made to reconstitute the ancient Roman Empire - if only in Western Europe. The following paper will explore one of the most remarkable phenomena of the period - Charlemagne's crowning as "Emperor of the Romans" in 800 AD - and outline why he was crowned as such and the enduring significance of the event.

Tags:crusades, charlemagne, history

Abstract
Critique of the 1996 book on the Dark Ages. Book depicts the end of an era of little or no intellectual accomplishments. The despondency of the era. The failure of imagination. The discouragement of individual thought. Argument of the author that the medieval spirit was not a bridge to the Renaissance.

From the Paper
"THE AUTUMN OF THE MIDDLE AGES

To most of us, this was a period often referred to as The Dark Ages . It was a time of lean intellectual accomplishments. The only light at the end of any creative tunnel occurred in the monasteries. What had been attempted in the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne had not really lasted. But, the autumn of this period was really unlike the autumn of the seasons in the sense that it would lead to a cold winter. Instead, it led to the recovering of Man in the rebirth - the Renaissance - of thought, art, and prospects of a better, un-serf like existence even for the common man. Huizenga (1996), however, according to his editor here, does not see the 14th and 15th centuries as a bridge to the Renaissance. Instead as the end of the Middle Ages, as the age of medieval thought in its last phase of life, as a tree with overripe ..."

Abstract
This paper discusses the legacy of the Roman Empire and its continued influence over Western Europe since the Dark Ages. The paper discusses the Roman political institutions that survived the fall of the Roman Empire, particularly the relationship between the emperor and the state. The influence of the Roman Empire on legal systems and social development is also discussed.

From the Paper
"While the Rome did eventually recognize and even adopt the Christian religion as its own, thereby intentionally spreading it throughout the Empire, the dominant religion of the medieval era also grew in strength thanks in great part to the early efforts of the emperors to squash the religious movement. Martyrs such as Polycarp and Perpetua, who perished as a result of their Christian practices, became legends and the source of inspiration for generations of Christians to come. Many of these early saints and martyrs were later recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, and assimilated into the Roman calendar. This custom of assimilation, designed to simplify the transition from the old state religion to Christianity swapped new feast days for old. While the dates remained the same, the reason for the celebration was simply changed. Thus, the early Church converted the Roman New Year's festival of Lupercanalia to St. Valentine's Day, at once honoring the martyr, while preserving the traditions of the Roman people (McKay, 199). As the Church and the Empire split, these festivals continued to be celebrated by the people of Europe. Little did they know that in celebrating the lives of their martyrs, they were also honoring the pagan feast days of the Roman Empire."

Tags:emperor, Church, assimilation

From the Paper
" The most conspicuous feature of the economic life of the early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages (c. AD 500.AD 1100) is a virtual absence of money and of the characteristic features of a money economy . economic specialization, long.distance trade, commercial towns. Instead, the early medieval economy was rural and locally self.sufficient, and society as a whole was correspondingly "rusticated."
This rustication appears vividly in our (relatively few) pictures of the Dark Ages. A striking example is the description of court life in Einhard's biography of Charlemagne (Einhard 45.52). The court life of medieval Europe's greatest king is surprisingly simple, compared to later high.medieval royal courts. Charlemagne lives similarly to an ordinary minor (...)"

Abstract
The author of the paper contends that, contrary to the generally held conception, the Middle Ages was not a time when ignorance reigned supreme and logic and reason had no place. By examining and discussing a number of works relating to the Middle Ages, the author further contends that the medieval period had its great scholars and contributors to human thought. The author examines the novel by Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose" which, whilst a piece of fiction, when examined alongside scholarly works on the Middle Ages, presents, in the author's opinion, a fair and reasonable portrayal of the "real" Middle Ages.

From the Paper
"From the very start of the novel The Name of the Rose Eco decisively shatters stereotypical Monty Python and the Holy Grail beliefs about the medieval era. Upon arriving at the monastery in Melk, William amazes his apprentice, Adso, by deducing what several monks, including the cellarer, Remigio of Varagine, are searching for. "during our whole journey I have been teaching you to recognize the evidence through which the world speaks to us like a great book"(Eco, 23). William of Baskerville is no ignorant man. From this one passage about the Brunellus, the missing horse, which culminates in a lecture to Adso, in which that sentence is the highlight, the reader realizes that William knows how to observe the world and draw logical conclusions. He uses observation, inference and ultimately confidence his own intellectual prowess to deduce the Abbot's most prized horse has gone missing. Furthermore, the reader is also meant to understand that Adso does not represent the ignorance of medieval ages, but rather the ignorance and inexperience of youth. He is, after all, the young apprentice of William. Adso does not have the same life experience or reservoir of knowledge of William. He is Eco's literary tool in which to answer the questions of the reader. Adso often asks exactly what the reader is wondering."

Tags:medieval europe, monks benedictine knowledge enlightenment ignorance aedificium history church papal apocalyptic

Abstract
This paper explains that Brenda Maddox writes in "Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA" that Franklin, who died in 1958 at the age of thirty-seven, just five years after her discovery through startling photos of x-rays of the double helix of DNA, was never given the same acknowledgement as men were given. The author points out that Maddox used extensive research including primary and secondary sources from a great number of areas in the United States and Great Britain and many lectures, notes and articles from the scientist herself to back up her story. The paper stresses that Maddox tends to write as if she was writing a novel rather than a biography by describing the characters vividly, using personal information to make them seem real and animated to the reader.

From the Paper
"There is one other part of the book that is sometimes difficult to get past. While the stories of Franklin, her family, her schooling, and her career read mostly like a novel, the author intersperses detail that sometimes takes away from the story. Much of the detail is necessary to fully understand Franklin's life and accomplishment, but some of it is quite detailed science or history. For example, the author stops the narrative to explain the history of Cambridge and how it related to Franklin's education, and the author stops again to go into a detailed description of the research into DNA and its components. While this is certainly important to the overall story, it is sometimes jarring. Most of the book is quite an easy read, but some of these sections seem to go on indefinitely, and they might cause at least some readers to skip them and move on to more interesting information."

Tags:research, insight, education, personality, maverick

Abstract
This paper explains that the author chose different turning points, moving away from victories on the battle-fields or conquests of uncharted territories to persons whose life's work moved forward the essential difference that separates man from lower orders of animals: Thought and reasoning. The author points out that, in the Hellenic Age of philosophy and art, when the mind for the first time in recorded history developed the first formation of moral and ethical standards, Plato and the advent of Christianity through Jesus were selected. The paper also selected as the turning points, in the Dark Ages, the adventurous merchant, son of Venetian merchants, Marco Polo; in the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci; in the Reformation, Martin Luther and, in Age of Enlightenment; Thomas Jefferson.

Table of Contents
Two Turning Points in Western Civilization: Greece and Rome
Two Turning Points: The Era of the Dark Ages to the Renaissance
Two Turning Points: Reformation and Enlightenment
Some Conclusions Concerning the Various Turning Points

From the Paper
" DaVinci was born as an illegitimate child in Vinci,. Italy, in 1452. While we tend to consider the Mona Lisa as his most significant work, he did so many things, outside the world of painting and there is so much distortion about his accomplishments that he has become known as "the Hamlet of art history, whom each of us must recreate for ourselves. He is justly well-known for his drawings, especially how life-like his anatomical representations are. He advised students of painting that "It is necessary to know the inner structure of man." However, when one lists his accomplishments and innovations outside Art, he is a most remarkable creative Human...truly the outstanding example of a "Renaissance Man". To begin with, he ante-dated Galileo and Copernicus when he said "the sun does not move.""

Tags:accomplishments, thought, reason, adventure, mind

Abstract
The world of the epic Old English poem Beowulf represents a little known society from what we today call the Dark Ages, that era in the first millennium after the fall of Rome and before the rise of Europe as an entity with a written history. The world of the warrior Beowulf is a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic influences with a Christian overlay in the existing manuscript. The world depicted is reminiscent of various Scandinavian epics as well, with warlords who are served as kings by their followers, and with a complex system of gift-giving and the sharing of bounty among the leader and his followers.

From the Paper
The world of the epic Old English poem Beowulf represents a little known society from what we today call the Dark Ages, that era in the first millennium after the fall of Rome and before the rise of Europe as an entity with a written history. The world of the warrior Beowulf is a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic influences with a Christian overlay in the existing manuscript. The world depicted is reminiscent of various Scandinavian epics as well, with warlords who are served as kings by their followers, and with a complex system of gift-giving and the sharing of bounty among the leader and his followers. The poem is in a dialect of Old English and sounds very alien as a result,

Tags:beowulf, poem, danes

Abstract
This paper discusses the rise of Sparta and Athens after the period known as the Greek Dark Ages, including various aspects of politics, economics, and society.

From the Paper
"The Greek Dark Ages were a time of deterioration in most aspects of culture and society. Similar to the Medieval Dark Ages, population declines, loss of writing and the arts, a decline in population and the lack of law and order, all characterized the Greek Dark Ages. Greek civilization experienced a rebuilding and revival including both the Spartan and Athenian societies. The political, economic and social conditions in Sparta and Athens were distinct, with most Athenians viewing Sparta..."

Tags:militarism, democracy, kingship, Peloponesian, writing, laws

Abstract
Analysis of Johan Huizenga's book. End of the Middle Ages, and the end of an era known as the Dark Ages. His thesis that the Middle Ages brought a negativity to love. The role of symbolism, and its use by the medieval Church; the lack of imagination. Anti-intellectualism of the period.

From the Paper
"THE AUTUMN OF THE MIDDLE AGES

To most of us, this was a period often referred to as "The Dark Ages". It was a time of lean intellectual accomplishments. The only light at the end of any creative tunnel occurred in the monasteries. What had been attempted in the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne had not really lasted. But, the autumn of this period was really unlike the autumn of the seasons in the sense that it would lead to a cold winter. Instead, it led to the recovering of Man in the rebirth- the Renaissance- of thought, art, and prospects of a better, un-serf like existence even for the common man. But Huizenga, according to his editor here, does not see the 14th and 15th centuries as a bridge to the Renaissance. Instead ?as the end of the Middle Ages, as the age of medieval thought in its last phase of life, as a tree with overripe fruits, ..."