Why The Dark Ages Weren't Actually So Dark | Britain AD

Why wold the powers that be conspire to present it as a dark age?

This whole video is so naive in its presentation. There are also events left out. It is so annoying that he keeps referring to Britain. Britain didn't exist then.

My 23andMe DNA test came back and says I'm related to King Arthur!

I'm struggling to accept that high Latin was just the preserve of west Britain. Really. What about Spain, Portugal, Francd and Italy who have always used Latin in the mass, and developed Latin based languages. This seems very wrong to me.

The name of ARTHUR originates from Scotland in the 5th century. Many of the Arthurs moved down the West coast of England that is why the name is popular in Wales and Cornwall. It is from this that the MacArthurs, pipers to the MacDonalds originated on Skye.

So the conclusion is that Arthur is a composite character based on several different warlords who tried to keep things going after the Romans buggered off. A bit like Jesus - or Yeshua to use his Aramaic name - is a composite character based on several Jewish teachers/healers living during the reign of Tiberius. Both entirely fictional.

I'm glad I didn't let the clickbait thumbnail deter me from watching the podcast.... Good job...

The truth about fiction. Sweet.

I watched this episode when it first emerged on public tv (about 2005). It was poignant then and very refreshing today (2023). Glad to see it remains in the archeological library. Thanks for posting.

Arthur was in what is now called Wales.

It’s a good video. Francis Pryor is a legit pre-historian and he’s posing the idea that there is a more complex story of the Dark Ages than was assumed for generations. He’s not saying he knows for sure. He’s saying, look at the finds that are more recent and consider we might have new things to learn that will change our previous beliefs about the Dark Ages. He’s saying, things were probably not so “dark” and this is consistent with other videos I’ve watched by different historians and archeologists. I find considering new ideas enjoyable and I really liked this video.

Can't watch it. Got as far as the people in stupid costumes.

Terrible channel. Constant ad interruptions. Dont bother. Broomed and blocked.

well done

Too many opening advertisements- I was ready to walk away. What do you get that makes you allow this?

this is crap.... many leaps, and guesses based on very small evidence.... shame on you for using arthur as click bait

not really following. So they found charcoal and bone fragments on the shore = direct trading amongst Mediterranean and British nobles. The presence of Mediterranean pottery means direct contact between Eastern Roman traders after the collapse of the empire? There are so many historical leaps it's incredible a reputable source would publish this as fact.

Is this 'not so dark' age theory widely accepted? Or is it possibly a suggested alternative theory expounded by a small group?

Yes, Arthur's connection to the substance of the piece is rather vague..

i’ve read that arthur is an amalgam of alfred t. great and some other guy whose name escapes me. the “other” guy is noted because he supported the casting of swords. after a casting cools, it is drawn from the stone that comprises the mold that gives the sword its shape. thus not a sword, but many swords drawn from many stone molds, paid for by a king, king arthur. not how most swords are made but who knows. maybe they knew casting but not forging. maybe they were making bronze swords and that is how you make them. i don’t know. i’ve also read that arthur was made up by an 11th century french monk from nothing at all.

Yup. Sucked me in

Very little evidence for all the conjecture that this documentary contains. Twenty years from now there will be other people with other conjectures.

Hi yes a better size, I use to fish the same way with mono in those days,
and used a krill instead of a weight.
I always thought I got bigger fish with a lure.
I hope the weather holds for you.
ATB

This bloke is still a useless fantasist.

royalty think their royalty because of their alien bloodline. they believe their alien bloodline give them the divine right to rule over the common man. the church is hiding all this. the gods were alien beings with technology, not witchcraft, magic or the devil. technology.

Pryor ignores many facts: Proof that there were 2 "King Arthurs" and the Comet of 562 laid waste to the Islands. The Romans never actually left, most of them had set up new lives in Britain, blended with the Populace and taught them their skills, reading, writing, medicine, art, architecture, etc.. Romans became Britons.
There was no invasion, there was a "return". With the Comet of 562, that set England, Wales and parts of Ireland in flames, people escaped to France and Brittany.
The Fires could been seen across the Channel and is well documented.

That it is all a myth?

Click bait to use Arthur from a ‘serious’ historian?

Please fix the roof slates. The problem has just begun, it’s small, it’s easy and cheap to fix now.

Can't be bothered with the naivity of this.

Hold on, what about the cataclysm of 536? Now known to be have been a nuclear winter caused probably by mount Tambora.

Francis Pryor seems to have a bias against any idea of invasion in the post-Roman period. But the 410 and date for an instant end to Roman Britain is a conversation, not a fact. The Romans never 'left',
but formal control from the central core of the Empire was disrupted. Local elites, steeped in hundreds of years of Roman culture, continued to carry on as best they could.
One cannot dismiss so casually the texts telling of attacks by 'Saxons, Picts' & others, simply because great war cemeteries have not been located. Surely no such are to be expected, as the battles were small scale & might be anywhere. We don't have such remains from well attested, even quite large battles throughout British history, such as the battle of Hastings, or Edgehill, or the many engagements of the Anarchy or Roses wars. The sites investigated in the vale of Pickering, or in the far west, may be peripheral to where most of the action took place.
We cannot dismiss the records we have entirely, even if we acknowledge their insufficiency. Weapons are still the most common grave goods through the period, which cannot be just for show or pretend. Conflict must have been endemic, even if small in scale, & quite small clashes can have great consequences for the combatants & their contemporaries. Something more than peaceful integration
of immigrants must have happened, at least in some places & some times. A resident population cannot have meekly sat aside & permit pagan invaders to take over their world. I think people like Francis tend to throw the baby out with the bath water by dismissing the ancient record. We know that the church continued to reach to the limits of the former Empire, & beyond, the Tintagel site etc confirms the Gilda's record. Areas in the far west like this may have been remote from the more general struggle for control of Britain, but were aware of what was going on, &
of recent history. The idea of a 'dark age' is indeed a much later invention, but that does not mean all stories are false, or that the old historical records are myths of the early medieval period. Gilda's & others may be somewhat
hysterical historiography, but that means they embellished the facts, they did not invent them based on nothing. To do that is to do a deep dis-service to Gilda's, & to those who fought to maintain their shattered society against the
spoilers, who did so for almost two centuries!

It is Bible prophecy that Great Britain would be part of the last world power (the Anglo-American World Power) on the scene just before the Almighty Creator put an end to all world powers and his Kingdom rule would take over - Matthew 6:9-10) - (See Daniel - the Great Image - the Anglo-American world power in the march of powers being the feet of iron mixed with clay- see also Daniel 2:44. It is interesting to see how the power evolved through mankind's history. People need to understand that God's purpose has taken thousands of years to come to completion. Man only lives 70 or 80 years if he is especially mighty. We are now in the time of the feet of Iron mixed with clay just before the great stone (expression of God's Universal Sovereignty) hits the feet of the image and crushes and destroys it completely so that it disintegrates into dust and is blow away completely with no trace (the crushing of Satan's world powers/political system of things). In it's place, God's Kingdom expands to take over the entire earth (Psalms 37:10-11, 29). Mankind is now in the time of the end, the last days just before the Great Tribulation hits the earth.

In a time where chaos was over the horizon, what kept enemies at bay was the distance of logisitics before starving. What kept the people fed was the vast amount of game animals as well as domestic. Coins, if hard to find, might have been stolen, obsolete, or never held so as not to entice a pillage. Though there is safety in community and security personnel.. the distance, timing, and/or strategy left people to survive and die in a vast land with no where to hide. That is my two cents on a figure.

I could, and have, watched this series over and over. Like once a year lol I love Frances Pryor. Such a good presenter and calming voice that’s great for bed time haha

Superb. But it is clear he has a strong thesis that the Anglo-Saxon invasions didn't occur, and I suspect the truth is more complex than that.