I've heard conflicting stories on this: just how "dark" were the Dark Ages? In other words: was Europe really a total hell-hole of illiteracy and religious fundamentalism from 500-1000, or was it more of a mixed bag, and/or not too different-from other time periods, than popular wisdom would have us believe?

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Ooh, good question. If you don't mind, I'd like to add one of my own. How bad was the Inquisition really, with the burning of witches and the torturing of infidels? I always find this quoted by anti-religionists as the absolute horrors of what the Church has done, but it always seems to be blown out of proportion. Especially so in comparison to secular ways of destruction and torture, Stallin and Hitler and etc. Likewise for the Crusades.

Mind you, I am anti-religion myself, it's just that I'd like to know the truth on this matter.

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It varied a lot from century to century and region to region. For instance, Iberia was much more tolerant of religious minorities when the Visigothic rulers were Arians than when they became Catholics, and after the Muslim conquest was much more tolerant during the Cordoba Caliphate than under the Almohades or Almoravids (though they were both post-1000 groups).

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I've heard there was Roman trade with India and China and have seen historical maps with Latin/Greek names for various places in south and east Asia (Cattigara, the Golden Chersonese, et cetera.) How extensive was this trade, and would the average Roman have known diddly-squat about any of this? (In Florida I knew someone who tried to recreate Roman cuisine from recipes and references in the literature, and she got a lot of ingredients for this at the Vietnamese shop; between the fish sauce and the basil, it practically was Vietnamese food, sans rice and noodles...)

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And to tack on another one to this, I hope you won't mind.

There are remains of a fortress/building in Siberia:
http://englishrussia.com/?p=1206

My sister, who's an architect, says it's reminiscent of Roman architecture. I'm not entirely convinced that the Romans have gotten as far as Siberia, especially not so far as to build fortresses. What else could it be?

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I'm still working on my MA, but I'd be happy to try to field the military questions and can give a crack at the economic ones. My specialty's 19th century US history but I've done a fair bit of work in European and Asian history too and picked up bits and pieces about other parts of the world.

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Aah, sorry, I lost your comments! Of course, feel free to hop in or add anything to the posts where I put answers.

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An old friend of mine who was a member of the Nation of Islam once claimed that north African muslim ships(he called them "the Barbary Pirates") had regular contact with Central American native populations for centuries before Columbus' expedition... any truth to this?

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But, hey, if you're as bored as I am, feel free to ask!

OK, I've thought of a question! It might be controversial, but here goes.

Do you think the witch persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries have been exaggerated, possibly for political reasons? Some fairly wild figures have been thrown about, figures sometimes running into the millions!

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What a wonderful idea to use your knowledge of history to answer questions from readers. I am sure it will give you new perspectives on historical events as well. I would like to "borrow" your idea and make it part of my blog www.thegreatwithin.org if you don't mind. I have a master's in art history and spent sometime in a Phd program, so I think I could field art historical questions. Anyway, here is my question: How is our reconstruction of historical events affected by our own historical moment and can we ever really understand history? Cheers, Kelly

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Oh, I'm sorry, I missed your comment. Sure you can "borrow" it, if you haven't already.

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