Paul GrahamVerified account

Is the term "dark ages" not a reference to the lack of sources? Because they were certainly dark in that respect.

That may be how some interpret the term, but it's not the way the term was originally conceived and is still mostly, used. And there are more sources available to historians than you might think, including forensic, artistic, legal, and literary.

Who originally conceived it?

Renaissance humanists trying to justify ignoring the previous thousand years in favor of a restoration of what they thought of as the more secular and intellectual antique period. They also came up with the term "Middle Ages" for the same reason.

I meant, which individual first used the term?

It's usually attributed to Petrarch, at least in concept.

I know he described the (early) medieval period as dark, but what I'm wondering is who first used the term "dark ages" (or the equivalent in another language) as a label for a period of history.