Absolutely none whatsoever. There were incredible advances going on in the "dark ages" in China, the Islamic Lands, India, etc.

Europe itself wasn't very "dark" either. Europe's major Universities were founded in the medieval period at Oxford, Bologna, Paris, Naples, Rome, etc. There were a number of scientific advances. Extraordinary works of engineering including most of Europes most famous cathedrals, etc.

edit: I'd add of course that the Y axis is totally undefined. What is "scientific advancement?" Is it an absolute value of progress? A rate of development? Either way, what, we'd have developed the internet by the 11th century if it weren't for the fall of Rome? Completely absurd.

This is such nonsensical history(why is Mesopotamia omitted? What is this mysterious "scientific advancement" term and why is it a definable quantity? Why is this graph not measuring something that is actually quantifable, like skeletal height or some other measure of human health? Why does it omit a period of human history that saw extensive development of a number of important engineering and agricultural technologies in favor of repeating 18th century historians who were largely writing out of an exaggerated fear of Popery?) that EDIT: REMOVED SOME STUFF THAT IS PROBABLY INADVISABLE EDIT: Here is our FAQ section on the early Middle ages; many of these threads discuss the problem with the term "Dark Ages" in depth: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/faq#wiki_late_antiquity.2Fearly_medieval.2F.22dark_ages.22