Document a: dictionary entry for “the dark ages”

in its original use, the term “dark ages” referred to the early middle ages in europe. it meant that little evidence about the time was available. historians did not know much about this time and so the period was “in the dark.” yet over time, people began using it as a term to describe the overall middle ages. also, the term gained a negative connotation. instead of focusing on the lack of information, historians assumed people and life at that time were “dark.” they thought they lived without learning or innovation. they used the term to de

document analysis

what time period does the american cyclopaedia use to explain the “dark ages”?
does “intellectual depression” refer to the people of the “dark ages” or historical knowledge of the time?
does this definition resemble more the original meaning of the “dark ages” or the meaning it gained over time?

“the dark ages is a term applied in its widest sense to that period of intellectual depression in the history of europe from the establishment of the barbarian supremacy in the fifth century (400 ce) to the revival of learning at about the beginning of the fifteenth (1400 ce), thus nearly corresponding in extent with the middle ages.”
—the american cyclopaedia: a popular dictionary of general knowledge, 1883

for the first question, the document refers to a certain "age" in time. what are those years?

for the second question, it refers to the historical knowledge of the time.

the third, what do you think, based on the answer from the second question?