1. Top Ten Reasons the “Dark Ages” were not so dark

2. Universities Are Born Universities were create in the Early Middle Ages. Taught arts, law, medicine, and theology. University of Bologna (1088) was 1 st to grant degrees. Convent educated young women who entered often at a very young age.

3. Scientific Foundations Laid Progress was slow it was steady and of a very high quality. Without the study of Science in the Early Middle Ages, we would be considerable behind in our scientific knowledge

4. Carolingian Renaissance Advancements in literature, writing, the arts, architecture, jurisprudence, liturgical and scriptural studies occurred in the late eighth and ninth centuries. Carolingians were Franks the most well known is Charlemagne. Period gave us the foundation of Western Classical Music.

5. Byzantine Golden Age Under Justinian this period gave us the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) Literacy was high elementary education was widespread Middle education was available to may people Higher education was also widely accessible

6. Religious Unity Europe was united under one church There was an agreed upon canon of the Bible, and a well- developed philosophical tradition. This led to a great period of peace within the Western nations.

7. Algebra Arrived The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing was written by Al-Akwrizm (790-840) The Arabic title of the book gave us the word “algebra” Later translations of his books gave us the decimal positional number system we use today

8. Art and Architecture Architecture was diverse and innovative It introduced the idea of realistic images in art and laid the groundwork for the Romanesque period.

9. Fantastic Weather Weather played a greater part in the lives of the average people during the Middle Ages and beyond. He North Atlantic region was warming up The warm period thawed much ice and enable the Vikings to begin their colonization of Greenland.

10. Law Becomes Fair The Early Middle Ages had a complex system of laws which were often not connected, but they were effective and fair for the most part. Lex Mercatoria (Law Merchant) Anglo Saxon Law The Early Germanic Law

11. Agricultural Boom The excellent weather and greater agricultural knowledge produced more food. Iron tools were in wide use in parts of the world Feudalism in other parts of the world introduced efficient management of land.