> 2,000 years encompasses the Middle Ages
Err, ~ 850 years, maybe 1,000 years at most, from the fall of Rome ( ~470 CE ) to the beginning of the 14th Century (1301 CE) perhaps to 1501 CE depending on your historian of choice.
> held up as nadir of history.
Not so much a low point of human activity, but definitely a low point in the human activity of recording history.
