Unenlightened period without Sun and Times ? (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
dark ages
'unenlightened period' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'sun and times ?' is the wordplay.
'sun' becomes 'dark' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'times ?' becomes 'ages' (I've seen this before).
'dark'+'ages'='DARK AGES'
'without' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dark ages that I've seen before include "Period c AD500-1100" , "Period after the fall of the Roman Empire" , "Unenlightened period?" , "Late 5th century to around AD 1000?" , "Period after the fall of Rome" .)