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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5951310" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, there's no super clear demarcation between late classical and early medieval. Water mills were in use from at least the 2nd Century BC, maybe somewhat earlier. Chances are in dark ages Europe there were less of them around, but it is hard to say for sure. The technology was certainly still around and became quite common in later centuries (by the end of the 1st millennium). Basic irrigation has of course been around forever, but it hasn't been used much in northern Europe, so it probably depends on the area. I don't know if it was less common in later centuries either, it would probably depend on the location and time period. There were 3 MAJOR innovations though in farming tech that took place sometime during the dark ages. The horse collar was redesigned so that horses became practical for use in plowing, and horses are generally more flexible than oxen. Secondly the heavy mouldboard plow was invented. The classical scratch plow wasn't much good for plowing heavy soil or breaking new ground. Agriculture moved down from mostly lighter highland soils to richer lowland areas (which also have better water supplies). Thirdly the three field rotation system replaced the two field system in most areas, which was a significant advance. There's no doubt that the fall of Rome was accompanied by falls in population. The question is more one of why. While it is 'common wisdom' that technology was lost at that time there's actually very little evidence for that. Portland cement definitely wasn't made during the middle ages, but I don't know of any other examples of technology that was actually lost. Governments in the dark ages were weak and decentralized, so there wasn't a lot of major public works going on, and a lot of disorder. It seems like however that when there was good government there was nothing stopping people from doing what they did in late antiquity really. Once things stabilized populations DID exceed those of antiquity by a good margin in Europe at least. One would assume the superior agricultural tech had something to do with that.</blockquote>

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