Contrary to people's expectation of the Middle Ages, the Middle Ages were one of the most politically and intellectually active periods of history in the Old World. China was undergoing a flowering of culture under the Tang and Song dynasties, while in Europe, the old culture and ethos of the defunct Roman empire was slowly being exported to lands which the Romans themselves never had a chance to dominate, such as northern Germany and Scandinavia. The Dark Ages of Europe cannot be merely seen as a period of lawlessness and ignorance, but one where civilisation slowly seeped northwards and northwards from its traditional bases in the Mediterranean.