The Dark Ages
also known as The Early Middle Ages
410 AD - 1066
START: 410 AD was the year the Roman army left Britain and the Dark Ages began.
End: Historians do not agree when the Dark Ages came to an end. 1066 is when William of Normandy invaded England to become King William the Conqueror. In 1086 the Domesday Book was compiled giving the first written evidence of most of the villages in England.
See also The End of Roman Britain and Britain attacked on all sides.
Prehistory and History
- What's the difference ???
The word 'Prehistory' means the period of time
before written records.
'History' started when people began to write.
The first to write anything down about this country were
the Romans who first arrived in 55 BC.
So what happened after the Romans is HISTORY
What happened before the Romans is PREHISTORY and has been discovered by archaeologists.
HOWEVER . . .
After the Roman army left Britain in 410 AD, the country was attacked from all sides by tribes from Scotland and Ireland, Holland, Germany and Denmark.
They had no written language.
What we know of them comes mainly from archaeology. Unfortunately, they have left little evidence in the ground for archaeologists to discover. Their houses were made of wood, mud and straw and have rotted away. Their pottery has not lasted and their iron tools and weapons have rusted to nothing.
We know so little about the Early Middle Ages, that the period from the end of Roman Britain (AD 410) to the writing of the first Anglo-Saxon book (600 AD) is called
The Dark Ages.
