Until I read this post, I didn't realize how global the Dark Age was. Apparently the years ~200-800 AD represented a global slowing of technological progress: braddelong.substack.com/p/70โ€ฆ

70,000 Years of Human Economic Growth, Briefly

& BRIEFLY NOTED: For 2022-01-21 Fr

braddelong.substack.com

Jan 22, 2022 ยท 2:52 AM UTC

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Wonder if the fundamental cause was climate change, the invention of a dystopian technology (the stirrup), or something else.
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Replying to @Noahpinion
Plague and climate change are a rough combo
Replying to @Noahpinion
Don't know about India, Sub-Saharan Africa, Americas, but yeah fall of western Rome + struggles of eastern Rome, fall of sassanid Persia, an lushan rebellion/collapse of tang China, most of Eurasia having an extremely bad half millenium
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Replying to @Noahpinion
Wait really? It must just be an accident of rome declining and the Han collapse around the same time and not having sources from elsewhere. There canโ€™t be something intrinsic about that time period.
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Why must? Maybe that's it, but maybe not
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Replying to @Noahpinion
The dark ages were anything but.
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Well, the sun was up for about half the day, so
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Replying to @Noahpinion
I find it hard to believe that gdp per capita was the same from 6000bc to 1500 ad. Sure its pre industrial but there were advancements in farming and artisanal traditions and skills were mastered.
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Population increase made it up for any productivity gains. This is why India and China were so densely populated even then.
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Replying to @Noahpinion
I mean, in 536 it was literally winter for more than a year in the northern hemisphere, indirectly causing a plague outbreak. This is likely where the idea of Ragnarok came from, the majority of Scandinavians either died or migrated in just a few decades. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcโ€ฆ

Volcanic winter of 536 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org
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