Getting medieval on society

[Sethomas]

Well, it's actually the other way around. The term was coined because the period was perceived as intellectually bleak in comparison to the Roman Empire. The point about the records has some validity to it, but I don't think it influenced the creation of the term. The places where you don't see a solid contemporary history are the ones where you wouldn't expect to find them prior to the fall of Rome, either. There is certainly a lot of frustration about records never being written or being written and lost, sure. But especially since it was the meticulous sense of duty toward history that led the monasteries to transcribe the canon of Classical writing, there's not a whole lot that you could generalized or draw conclusions from. For example, Bede's history of England might not be as thorough and rigorous as we could hope to have, but it was a true innovation in terms of British history.