Much of the knowledge that the Romans used (science, technology, medicine, and literature) was lost. The Dark Ages are given this name because Europe was in disarray in comparison to the orderliness of classical antiquity and life was short and poor. The fall of the Roman Empire, and the invasions of barbarian tribes, devastated European towns and cities and their inhabitants. Because few could write, less is known about the Dark Ages than about earlier times. When used narrowly, the term 'Dark Ages' refer only to a very early period, from 476 to 800 CE (when Charlemagne became Holy Roman Emperor). This period of time is also known as the Medieval Age, the Dark Ages (due to the lost technology of the Roman empire), or the Age of Faith (because of the rise of Christianity and Islam). The 'Middle Ages' are called this because it is the time between the fall of Imperial Rome and the beginning of the Early modern Europe. They started around the year 476 CE when the Western Roman Empire ended, and continued until around the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492. The Middle Ages were a period of about a thousand years in European history.

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