An explanation of chronology The Starting Point An explanation of chronology

The Starting Point All systems of Chronology need a starting point All events come before and after this striking event In the west we use the birth of Christ as the striking event If something happened before the birth of Christ we say is was BC (Before Christ) this has been changed recently to BCE (before the common era) If the event happened after Christ then we refer to it as A.D(anno domini) or CE(the common era)

Other systems Not everyone uses the Christian chronology Ancient Egypt: used a pharaohs reign The Jewish people use: creation about 3770 years ago Ancient Greece used: the first Olympics Rome used: the founding of Rome The Muslim peoples use: the hegira (movement of Mohammed to medina

Chronological Order Dates are used to place events in order Sometimes we us decades and centuries in place of specific dates in history Decades are time periods of 10 years, Centuries are periods of 100 years When numbering centuries remember there is no year 0 There was only 1 CE and 1 BCE In BCE the centuries always go from 00 to 01 In the CE the centuries always go from 01 to 00

TRY IT Give me the beginning and end dates of the following Centuries 3rd Century BCE 4th Century CE 12th Century CE 15th Century BCE 3rd Century CE

TIME PERIODS OF HISTORY Historians divide the past in 2 periods(very unequal in length) Pre-History lasted until 3500 BCE when writing was invents Pre-History is made up of the Paleolithic and Neolithic stone ages History began when writing began We split history into 4 main parts 1) Ancient Times: 3500BCE to the fall of Rome 2) The Middle Ages: 476 BCE to 1492 CE 3) Modern Times: 1492-1789 4) Contemporary Times: 1789 to present