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Maybe what they call the ‘Dark Ages’ is something that Libertarians might actually like?…an absence of overbearing government stealing from everyone for their own selfish purposes?…maybe we should call it the ‘Freedom Ages’ instead? :+)

Anybody who says anything bad about the Dark/Middle Ages is probably a government bureaucrat or lefty academic who doesn’t want anybody to get the idea that we can live without them.

“Batte·mann was here A(nno) Do(mini) CCCVI”

It looks as if Kilroy is just about to be there, at about the 5 o’clock position.

By gum, I think that is Kilroy!

I’m not persuaded by most of the explanations in the article. Except the one about stonemasons showing apprentices how to use a compass — there are lots of incised circles.

I’m going with the “it’s probably bored graffiti” theory.

Angles and Saxons and Jutes, oh my!

I find it more interesting that our ancestors had the time to be creative in a non-productive manner, temerity to fidget, and opportunity to deface HRM/CoE/HMFiC’s property.

It contradicts most of the history of the common folk that is usually told. One wonders if there was a much richer variety to the life of a peasant/barbarian than is officially thought.

Of course, I suppose it could be your lesser aristocracy and their yardmonkeys doing all that doodling.

It’s a bit cheeky innit! (my attempt at a English-y accent (region unknown))

I’ve heard it argued that life was often very far from relentless back then, Feynmangroupie. Apparently, once you take into account all the saints’ days and feast days and so on, people had quite a lot of time off.

Lucky bastards.

Oh, and no: ‘Dark Ages’ is seriously frowned in academic circles these days. Which may be all the more reason to use it, of course 😉

Are there any ancient “north” arrows carved into the rocks?

Not that I know of, Deborah. Is this a thing?

In some of the Scandinavian countries, there are very old north arrows and compass roses carved into rocks, which made me wonder about England.

Weasel,
When you are of this country, this Sceptr’d Isle, you’ll discover that this sort of ancient stuff is normal. We grew up with this stuff all around us; knowing that it was always there and would always be so.
Then, when we’d grown up, we saw what had been been destroyed already in the name of ‘progress’ (which it was not), and we, the English, became much more protective of those things which constitute our history. Cultural anchors are necessary, and the anchors in England are dug deep in the bedrock of our history.
I sometimes go to Church, not often, only when I have the need. The Church I go to was built in the 12th Century, it has not been touched since it was first built.
History.
It’s what we are all about.

QuasiModo @ July 23, 2014, 10:51 pm:
Maybe what they call the ‘Dark Ages’ is something that Libertarians might actually like?…an absence of overbearing government stealing from everyone for their own selfish purposes?…maybe we should call it the ‘Freedom Ages’ instead? :+)

Absence of overbearing central government, yeah. Presence of of really overbearing local government instead.

P.S. That graffito in the image? Looks like it was carved with tools, i.e. all the scribed circular arcs – and subsequently damaged by small arms fire. (I’ve hear that Cromwell’s men indulged that way with stained glass and statues.)

As in “The baron gets 1/3 of your labor to work his land (which is the best land), and when there is a famine you starve first. In return for which he and his soldiers may try to keep the baron down the road from plundering you. And no backtalk from serfs about crops trampled when he’s out hunting, no ‘poaching’ of game (it’s all his), and your teenaged daughter to warm his bed when he feels like it.”

Libertarians should have no more nostalgia for the Dark Ages than for the pre-Civil War American South. Freedom for some, slavery for the rest.