Okay. I figured that I should probably just try to bang this out early. I dont have the time to make this argument properly so I just do the best in the 30 minutes that I have.
Science 101: This is going to sound a bit preachy & I dont have time to look up dates and verify particulars so bear with me.
Many scholars mark the fall of the great Library of Alexandria as the starting point of the dark ages (not the fall itself, but the time period.) The Library had at the time amassed the largest sum of scientific information, and would continue to hold this record for about the next 1,500 years. They knew the stars were very far away, they knew the brain was the center of though
Look up Erastosthenes method of calculating the circumference of the earth (Its the shiznit of BC science.) If memory serves me right, Mark Antony donated 250K scrolls as a wedding present to Cleopatra. It also contained a wealth of art.
After Constantine (neither a Christian or a saint) converted to Christianity (300 BC about
I think) he started the trend in Rome. His successor (I forget his name) ordered the destruction of the Library and all pagan libraries on the grounds of heresy. Thus begins the era in which, over the next 1,000+ years, scientific advancement begins at the horse and buggy and ends with larger horses and buggies. (Keep in mind that Rome had invented a system of potable running water via aqueducts about 1,000 years earlier.)