Final answer:
The term 'Dark Ages' traditionally encompasses the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) to the Renaissance but is an oversimplified and somewhat pejorative term that doesn't fully represent the era's cultural complexities. Therefore, the statement that the Dark Ages lasted until the fall of the Byzantine Empire is false.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept of the 'Dark Ages' traditionally refers to the period in European history after the fall of the Western Roman Empire until the Renaissance. This spans from approximately 476 CE, when the Western Roman Empire fell, to the 15th and 16th centuries with the blossoming of the Renaissance. However, it is misleading to claim this period was devoid of culture or progress, and the term can be considered pejorative.
In Byzantine history specifically, the term 'Byzantine Dark Age' is used to describe the period during the 7th and 8th centuries when there was a scarcity of historical writing and the empire was under constant threat from external forces. Meanwhile, in the west, despite the lack of a dominant centralized power, the remnants of Roman civilization persisted in various forms, including the legal code and the spread of Christian monasticism. Similarly, the Byzantine Empire in the east was certainly not stagnant, even as it experienced territorial losses and faced geopolitical instability.
Hence, the statement that the so-called Dark Ages lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West to the fall of the Byzantine empire is false. The use of 'Dark Ages' to describe this entire period fails to acknowledge the complexity and cultural developments that occurred throughout the Middle Ages, including the continued existence and influence of the Byzantine Empire well after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.