What time is it? Breakdown of Prehistory & History
CE, AD, BCE, BC, circa; what do these really mean, and what time is it right now anyway? Let’s look at our world's timeline and known history to chronologically assemble the ages and help us interpret where we are now! Improving our chronological literacy will enable better comprehension of when events took place and exactly how long ago they happened.
Firstly, chronology refers to how time is organised, divided, and arranged based on historical events, changes, movements, and context. So, let’s define some terms:
You might have seen AD as an indicator of date before. AD means ‘After Death’ or ‘anno domini’ and refers to years after Jesus Christ's birth (AD 1). All years before the birth would be written as BC, meaning ‘Before Christ.’ You may be surprised to hear that there is no year 0. There is 1 BC, and immediately following is AD 1.
The religious terminology that remained popular through the Middle Ages is not well suited for the secular world. Instead, we use BCE and CE, meaning ‘Before Common Era’ and ‘Common Era’ (we live in CE now!). In CE, the years are ascending linearly from 1 to 2024, and so on. However, the years are descending for BCE, meaning that the years were counted forward to 1 BCE. (This is why sometimes the dates in BCE appear backwards).
The first humans appeared on Earth 6 to 7 million years ago, when our historical timeline of humanity truly begins. The Prehistory period started around 2.5 million years ago (wow)! (Prehistory refers to the time before writing.) This period lasted until 800 BCE, when writing was developed and maintained in society, leading to the next Period called History. There were many millenniums of humanity without any recorded data. The introduction of written language differentiates the periods of Prehistory and History. There are further differentiations between ages and eras within the Prehistory and History periods.
This timeline breaks down the years of each period, age, and era! Feel free to use this educational tool to help you. See if you can identify when your favourite historical events occurred or when notorious historical figures lived!
Further reading:
History Year by Year: The Ultimate Visual Guide to the Events That Shaped the World
References:
“Introduction to Human Evolution.” The Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program, 9 July 2024,
humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution#:~:text=Humans%20first%20evolved%20in%20Africa,ago%20come%20entirely%20from%20Africa.
