{{위키데이터 속성 추적}}
[[파일:Tommaso.Laureti Triumph.of.Christianity.jpg|thumb]]
'''암흑시대'''(Dark Ages)란 [[서로마 제국의 멸망]] 이후 [[서유럽]]의 [[중세 초기]] 또는 [[중세]] 전체를 가리키는 용어로, 경제적・지적・문화적 쇠퇴를 강조하는 표현이다. 여기서 빛과 어둠이라 함은 [[사료]]가 풍부한 것을 빛, 그렇지 않은 것을 어둠이라 하는 의미이기도 하다.<ref name="Mommsen227228" />

"암흑시대"라는 관념은 1330년대 이탈리아의 [[페트라르카]]가 처음 고안한 것이다. 페트라르카는 로마제국이 망한 뒤의 시대는 "빛나는" [[고전 고대]]와 대비되는 "어두운" 시대였다고 생각했다.<ref name="Mommsen227228">{{서적 인용|author=Theodor Ernst Mommsen|title=Medieval And Renaissance Studies|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|year=1959|pages=106–129|chapter=Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'|author-link=Theodor Ernst Mommsen|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.110531/page/n115/mode/2up}}. Reprinted from: {{저널 인용|last=Mommsen|first=Theodore Ernst|year=1942|title=Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'|journal=[[Speculum (journal)|Speculum]]|location=Cambridge MA|publisher=[[Medieval Academy of America]]|volume=17|issue=2|pages=227–228|doi=10.2307/2856364|jstor=2856364|s2cid=161360211}}</ref><ref>{{서적 인용|last=Thompson|first=Bard|title=Humanists and Reformers: A History of the Renaissance and Reformation|publisher=Erdmans|location=Grand Rapids, MI|year=1996|page=[https://archive.org/details/humanistsreforme0000thom/page/13/mode/2up 13]|isbn=978-0-8028-6348-5|quote=Petrarch was the very first to speak of the Middle Ages as a 'dark age', one that separated him from the riches and pleasures of classical antiquity and that broke the connection between his own age and the civilization of the Greeks and the Romans.}}</ref> 즉슨 암흑시대라는 관념은 중세를 로마의 멸망으로부터 [[르네상스]] 사이의 유럽을 지적인 암흑의 시대였다고 폄하하기 위한 의도가 있는 것이고, 18세기 [[계몽시대]]에 들어 이런 관념이 널리 받아들여지게 되었다.<ref name=Mommsen227228/>

19-20세기에 들어 중세에 대한 연구가 진척되면서 역사학자들은 "암흑시대"를 사료가 부족한 [[중세 초기]](5세기-10세기)에 한정해서 사용하기 시작했고,<ref name="Mommsen227228" /><ref>{{서적 인용|url=https://archive.org/details/darkages00kerwrich |title=The Dark Ages |location=New York |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons |last=Ker |first=W. P. |author-link=W. P. Ker |year=1904 |page=[https://archive.org/details/darkages00kerwrich/page/n17/mode/2up 1] |quote=The Dark Ages and the Middle Ages — or the Middle Age — used to be the same; two names for the same period. But they have come to be distinguished, and the Dark Ages are now no more than the first part of the Middle Age, while the term mediaeval is often restricted to the later centuries, about 1100 to 1500, the age of chivalry, the time between the first Crusade and the Renaissance. This was not the ''old view'', and it does not agree with the ''proper'' meaning of the name. }}</ref><ref>{{저널 인용|title=Were the "Dark Ages" Really Dark? |journal=Grey Matter. The Co-curricular Journal of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College |author-first=Syed Ziaur |author-last=Rahman |author-link=Syed Ziaur Rahman |date=2003 |volume=7 |number=10 |publisher=[[Aligarh Muslim University]] }}</ref> 현대에 들어서는 중세를 가리켜 암흑시대라는 용어 자체를 거의 사용하지 않게 되었다.<ref>{{서적 인용|editor-last=Fouracre |editor-first=Paul |editor-link=Paul Fouracre |author-last=Halsall |author-first=Guy |author-link=Guy Halsall |url=https://archive.org/details/newcambridgemedi700four_962 |title=The New Cambridge Medieval History: c.500-c.700 |volume=1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newcambridgemedi700four_962/page/n95/mode/2up 90] |quote=In terms of the sources of information available, this is most certainly not a Dark Age... Over the last century, the sources of evidence have increased dramatically, and the remit of the historian (broadly defined as a student of the past) has expanded correspondingly.}}</ref> 현대의 역사학자 대다수는 암흑시대라는 표현에 내재한 편견이 오도와 불확실성을 야기하므로 그 용어의 사용을 피해야 한다는 데 동의한다.<ref>{{서적 인용|url=https://archive.org/details/cathedralforgewa00gies_061/page/n1/mode/2up |title=Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |author=Joseph Gies |author-link=Joseph Gies |year=1994 |page=2 |quote="In the course of recent decades, the very expression 'Dark Ages' has fallen into disrepute among historians."}}</ref><ref>{{서적 인용|last=Snyder|first=Christopher A.|author-link=Christopher Snyder|year=1998|title=An Age of Tyrants: Britain and the Britons A.D. 400&ndash;600|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|publication-date=1998|location=University Park|pages=xiii&ndash;xiv|isbn=0-271-01780-5}}. In explaining his approach to writing the work, Snyder refers to the "so-called Dark Ages", noting that "Historians and archaeologists have never liked the label Dark Ages ... there are numerous indicators that these centuries were neither 'dark' nor 'barbarous' in comparison with other eras."</ref><ref name=dmas>{{서적 인용|title=[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]] |volume=Supplement 1 |publisher=Charles Scribner |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmidd0000unse_y1k9_supp1/page/388 |chapter=Medievalism |pages=389–397 |year=2004 |first=Kathleen |last=Verdun |editor-first=Chester William |editor-last=Jordan |editor-link=William Chester Jordan}}; Same volume, [[Paul Freedman|Freedman, Paul]], [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmidd0000unse_y1k9_supp1/page/383/mode/2up "Medieval Studies"], pp. 383–389.</ref><ref>{{웹 인용|last=Raico|first=Ralph|author-link=Ralph Raico|title=The European Miracle|url=https://mises.org/daily/2404|access-date=14 August 2011}} "The stereotype of the Middle Ages as 'the Dark Ages' fostered by Renaissance humanists and Enlightenment ''philosophes'' has, of course, long since been abandoned by scholars."</ref> 그러나 페트라르카가 처음 사용하기 시작한 경멸적 의도는 여전히 남아 있고,<ref name=OED>{{서적 인용|title=Oxford English Dictionary|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordenglishdic0004unse/|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordenglishdic0004unse/page/250/mode/2up 251]|url-access=registration|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|year=1989|edition=2|volume=4}}</ref><ref name="Merriam-Webster">{{웹 인용|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dark%20age|title=Definition of DARK AGE|website=www.merriam-webster.com}}</ref><ref name="Franklin">{{저널 인용| last=Franklin | first=James | title=The Renaissance Myth | journal=Quadrant | volume=26 | issue=11 | year=1982 | pages=51–60 | url=http://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/renaissance.html }}</ref> 특히 중세를 폭력과 퇴행의 시대로 오해하는 대중문화의 차원에서 "암흑시대"라는 표현은 계속 사용되고 있다.<ref name=tainter>{{서적 인용| last = Tainter  | first = Joseph A. | author-link = Joseph Tainter |editor=Barker, Graeme |editor-link=Graeme Barker | chapter = Post Collapse Societies | title = Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology | publisher = Routledge | year = 1999 | location = Abingdon, England | page = 988 | isbn = 0-415-06448-1 |chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/companionencyclo0000unse_z3b0/page/988/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>*{{저널 인용| last=Nelson |first=Janet |author-link= Janet Nelson |journal= History Workshop Journal |title=The Dark Ages|volume=63 |date=Spring 2007 |pages=196–98 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbm006 |issn= 1477-4569 }}</ref>

== 각주 ==
{{각주}}

{{서양 중세사}}
{{토막글|역사}}

[[분류:중세사학사]]
[[분류:역사철학]]
[[분류:암흑시대]]
[[분류:멸칭]]