The Middle Ages Has Its Defenders

Max objects to my gratuitous slam against the middle ages. Fair enough. My point earlier was simply to emphasize how impressive the Polynesian expansion was. This is especially the case when we compare where European navigation and seagoing was.

Sadly, my knowledge of middle-age history is lacking. I wonder, however, if there's a resonance with the Archaic Age of Greek history, which I know something about. Archaic Greece was the period of roughly 700-500 BC, as the Greek mainland emerged from the collapse of the Mycenean civilization and expanded throughout the Mediterranean. Largely ignored in favour of studying the Classical Age (roughly, the period of the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars) the Archaic age really laid the foundation for future Greek greatness.

Max, I don't know if you'd care to comment, but I wonder if the Middle Ages are seen in more recent scholarship as a foundation for the later Renaissance.

Anyone who has any knowledge of the period in question would be welcome. Yay for comments!
(Edit: Max gets 10 Dymaxion points for using a word I had to look up to be sure of the meaning - nescience.)