WORLD: Could you be specific? What were some of the "Dark Ages" innovations that show the folly of considering Greek and Roman culture the apex of civilization until recent times?
STARK: How about the perfection and widespread use of waterwheels, windmills, and pumps, the invention of the compass, stirrups, the crossbow, canons, effective horse harnesses, eyeglasses, clocks, chimneys, violins, double-entry bookkeeping, and insurance?
Ummm... lessee:
1) Waterwheels: in regular use by the Romans.
2) Windmills: 7th century BC, Persia
3) Pumps: Regular use by the Romans
4) Compass: Chinese
5) Stirrups: Chinese
6) Crossbow: Roman
7) Cannon: Derived from Chinese gunpowder
8) Horse Harnesses: Probably Mongolian
9) Eyeglasses: apparently simultaneous development around 1280 in Italy and China
10) Clocks: first mechanical, Antikythera mechanism, 87 BC Greece
11) Chimneys: Northern Europe, 1200's
12) violins, double-entry bookkeeping, and insurance: Yawn.
OK. Does this guy have some sort of point?
Yawn, nothing - double-entry bookkeeping and insurance are of staggering historical and economic importance. Nevertheless, the Romans certainly had insurance, and probably had double-entry bookkeeping too.