A Guide to the Phantom Dark Age

Emmet Scott confronts conventional historians and looks at the evidence, archaeological and textual, for the proposition that three centuries, roughly between 615 and 915, never existed and are 'phantom' years. The author shows in detail how no archaeology exists for these three centuries, and that the material remains of the seventh century closely resemble those of the tenth, and lie directly beneath them. This is the first book on this topic in the English language, though Heribert Illig's books on the same topic, 'Das erfundene Mittelalter' and 'Wer hat an der Uhr Gedreht?' have been best sellers in German-speaking Europe. Foreword 6 Introduction 6 Chapter 1: The Dark Age 14 Origin and Development of the Dark Age Idea 14 What Caused the Fall of Rome? 19 The Revival of Classical Civilization in the Sixth Century 23 The Revisionist Rejection of the Dark Age Idea 34 Chapter 2: The Archaeological Problem 41 The Archaeological Hiatus in Europe 41 The Archaeological Hiatus in Byzantium and the Islamic World 47 Retarded Echoes 52 Chapter 3: A Mythical Three Centuries 59 A Radical Solution 59 Origin of the Anno Domini Calendar 61 Why Distort History? 64 What about the Dark Age Chronicles? 70 Chapter 4: The Problem of Islamic History 78 The Islamic Calendar 78 The Archeology of Mesopotamia and Iran 81 The Chronology of Islam’s Early Expansion 86 Other Question Marks about Early Islam 89 Towards a Solution 97 Chapter 5: Reconstructing the Seventh Century 100 The Seventh Century Renaissance 100 Reconnecting the Strands 103 Seventh Century Merovingians and Tenth Century Carolingians 107 Spain in the Seventh and Tenth Centuries 110 Byzantium in the Seventh and Tenth Centuries 114 Chapter 6: A Strange New World 117 Consequences 117 Europe and the East 120 Appendix: The Astronomical Evidence 124 Radiocarbon Dating and Dendrochronology 129 Bibliography 142 Index 153 Scott confronts historians with the stunning notion that we could be off by some 300 years. He looks at the evidence, archaeological and textual, for the proposition that three centuries, roughly between 615 and 915, never existed. Look carefully - no archaeology exists for these'phantom'centuries. The material remains of the seventh century closely resemble those of the tenth - and lie directly beneath them. This is the first book on this topic in the English language.