The Early Middle Ages or Early Medieval Period are generally understood to mean the period in the Middle Ages from the 5th century (the fall of the Western Roman Empire) to the end of the 10th century, more particularly as part of the history of Europe.

Sometimes the term “dark”, Dark Ages” or “dark Middle Ages” is also used for this, because of the chaos caused by the many waves of invasion of adrift peoples. Few written sources have survived from this period and therefore modern knowledge about this has large gaps. The period saw a continuation of trends evident since late Classical Antiquity. The decline in population, trade and living standards, compared to those in Roman times, is also seen as a reason to consider these centuries as a period of decline. The tide did not turn slightly in Western Europe until the Carolingian Renaissance, that is during the reign of Charlemagne (768-814).

This perception of decline, especially the result of cultural attitudes to the Middle Ages that can be traced in the historiography of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, is by no means uncontested. Academic historiography almost always refers to the early Middle Ages, to avoid the in some respects unjustified value judgment implicit in the term Dark Ages.

However, the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire continued to survive, though in the 7th century the Rashidun Caliphate (established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammed) and the Umayyad Caliphate conquered swathes of formerly Roman territory.

In 800 the title of “emperor” was revived in Western Europe by Charlemagne, whose Carolingian Empire greatly affected later European social structure and history. Europe experienced a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the feudal system, which adopted innovations such as three-field planting and the heavy plough.

Barbarian migration stabilized in much of Europe, although the Viking expansion greatly affected Northern Europe. Such movements, at the end of the Classical Antiquity, were aided by the refusal of the western Roman elites to either support the army or pay the taxes that would have allowed the military to suppress the migration. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common.

This led to a fusion between the Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes. Much of the intellectual culture of the new kingdoms was directly based on Roman intellectual traditions. There was less need for large tax revenues and the taxation systems decayed. Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply declined, and society became more rural.

The Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity under Clovis. The Britons settled in what is now (2021) Brittany (Great Britain). The Visigoths established kingdoms in Spain and the Vandals in North Africa. The settlement of all these people was accompanied by changes in languages. The Latin of the Western Roman Empire was gradually replaced. This change took many centuries and went through several stages.

As literacy declined and printed material became available only to monks and nuns who copied illuminated manuscripts, art became the primary method of communicating narratives to the masses. Early medieval art exists in many media. The remaining works include sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, and mosaics. These had higher survival rate than fresco wall-paintings or textiles such as tapestries.

Monks and monasteries had a deep effect on the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages. They acted as land trusts for powerful families, centers of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions. They were the main and often only regional outposts of education and literacy. Latin classics were copied in monasteries and new works, including history, theology and other subjects were written by monks.

Between the Constantinian basilicas of the fourth and eighth centuries few large stone buildings were constructed. By the early eighth century, the Merovingian dynasty revived the basilica form of architecture. The cross-shaped building included a monumental entrance to the church, usually at the west end of the building.