Civilisation by Kenneth Clark

Just watched the first episode of 'Civilisation' by Kenneth Clark, a 13 part documentary series made by the BBC in 1966/67, a landmark first for its scope and magnificent scenes from all round the world, it set the tone for many documentaries to come. The DVD sound and picture are surprisingly good on my widescreen HD TV! My wife wouldn't like it, she called 'America' by Alistair Cooke 'man talking' as she said it was just a man talking with some pictures/video backdrop. This is similar, but the scenes are breathtaking, and the talking very interesting, so I love it.

The first episode is called 'The Skin of Our Teeth' and the basic premise is we got through the dark ages through the skin of our teeth, and it could easily have been different and western civilisation not reasserted itself.

The episode starts by examining why the Roman Empire, and thus the whole Greco-Roman world, fell. Clark's view was that it was fear and boredom. Fear of invading barbarians which stopped people planning and building for the future or planting the next year's crops. And boredom as people grow bored of the stagnant culture, some almost wishing the barbarians would invade, as a change would be better than the same old, same old.

Once the Roman Empire fell, there was an island of civilisation in Constantinople but this shut itself off and wanted nothing to do with Western Europe. Early Christians sought the far reaches of the world to escape the barbarians and keep the tiny flame of Christianity alive. These early missionaries found various remote rocky outcrops, including Iona and one literal rock in the Atlantic which they clung to for 400 years and built huts out of the rock, and crude crosses with stone and white crystal found on the outcrop (too small to be called an island). They also carved a stone causeway up to the top of the island. The thought of these early Christians stubbornly clinging to this outpost for so long is quite awe inspiring. Christians later found their way to Iona and this was a safe haven where they could settle as a base from which to spread Christianity. They wrote and decorated fabulous gospels, some of which survive today. I've been to Iona when quite young with my mum and dad and recognised the place, especially the stone Ionian Cross. At the time I wasn't really interested though. Shame.

For civilisation to reassert itself, someone needed to create stability (through fighting to assert peace). This first occured in France, the Kingdom of the Franks, and Charlemagne was the most important of these early rulers. As well as establising and controlling a large empire, he believed in art and books, and had many classic books copied. As nearly all the originals of Greek & Roman books no longer survive, it is thanks to Charlemagne that we know them at all. The other important thing that Charlemagne did was reconnect with what remained of Roman civilisation in Rome, and the pope made him Holy Roman Emperor. He also visited Constantinople, and was so impressed with the stone built mosaic decorated Hagia Sophia that he built a replica himself at home (the first significant building made of stone in centuries). As an aside, the Hagia Sophia was first built in 360 AD on the orders of the Emperor Justinian, served as cathedral of Constantinople until 1453, and then became a mosque until 1934, opening as a museum in 1935.

The Vikings also made an appearance - for they had culture, if not civilisation, with their magnificently carved boats, and poems, runic alphabet and Islandic sagas.

The reason the Dark Ages were called the Dark Ages was because there was no art, writing, great buildings or other culture, except for the remains of the Roman Empire. By the skin of our teeth though, we made it through.