Dates are obviously really important when talking about history, but there’s a few
minor details that can make it a bit confusing if you never saw them before.
So today I want to answer some frequently asked questions about dates, such as:
What’s up with AD, BC, BCE, CE?
What do those all mean?
What’s that little c. in front of a date?
Is that the same as the BC, CE AD thing?
If you never heard of that, watch this video.
There’s a number of different calendars out there, but the one used most commonly
internationally, and the one you’re going to have to memorize in class, is the Gregorian
calendar.
Now it’s also called the Western calendar and the Christian calendar.
It’s named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced the calendar in 1582.
Because it’s pretty difficult to agree on when time started, Christian decided to use
the birth of Jesus Christ as a reference point.
So any year before Christ’s birth is counting backwards, and is marked with BC, “Before
Christ”, whereas the years after his birth are marked with AD.
And no, AD doesn’t stand for “After Death”, because it’s his birth year, not his death
year.
And AD actually stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for "In the year of our Lord.”
So going from old to new, it would be 2 BC, 1 BC, AD 1, and then AD 2, and so on.
Today, a more common notation you’ll see is BCE and CE instead of BC and AD.
Now this is actually the same exact calendar system but the abbreviations are simply “Before
Common Era” and “Common Era.”
So 50 BC refers to the same exact time period as 50 BCE, as does AD 50 refer to the same
exact time period as does 50 CE.
It’s a little bit confusing at first, but as soon as you realize they’re the same
exact thing, it’s pretty straight forward.
Now you probably noticed that I’ve been saying AD and then the year number, whereas
th eother three I’ve been saying the year number, and then the letters.
If there’s no notation, then assume it is CE (or AD), just like how you know 2015 refers
to the year this video was made, However you should always use BCE (or BC) to avoid confusion.
Now should you use BC and AD or BCE and CE?
It’s kind of up to you.
Unless your professor has a specification.
Just choose one of them and stick with the system, otherwise that would be really confusing.
Just don’t change any direct quotes.
And what about that little c. or ca.
in front of the date?
That is actually an abbreviation for the Latin word “circa” which means approximate.
When we don’t know the exact date that something was created, we use circa as a notation.
It basically says, “Hey don’t know when this was created.
But according to our research, this is the time range that is our best guess”
Finally, let’s talk about centuries.
How we do figure out what century we’re in.
Currently, in 2015, we are in the 21st century.
Now you might be thinking, “Hey I know a century is a 100 years, that’s pretty straight
forward.
We are within a 100 years of 2000.
Why are we not in the 20th century?”
Now, here's the way you have to think about it.
The very first century of CE refers to January 1, 1 CE through December 31, 100 CE.
So January 1, 101 CE is part of the 2nd century CE, ending on December 31, 200 CE.
So always remember the century is counting the 100 years before that number, not the
100 years after that number.
The same thing applies to millennia.
A millennium equals 1000 years.
Currently we’re living in the third millennium CE, which started on January 1, 2001, and
will continue until December 31, 3000.
So do you remember December 31, 1999, when everyone was freaking out and reporters were
saying, “it’s the end of a millenium!”
Well, they were wrong, because they were a year early!
Thanks so much for watching this video.
I hope you learned something new.
If you want to keep learning more art history, please subscribe and I’ll see you next time.
So today I want to answer some common questions about dates, such as what’s that little
c. in front of a date?
Or what does ADBCBCEBCEBCE mean?
Now it’s named after Pope Greogory the XIII, who invented, who introduced the calendar
in 19- 18- 52 1582.
So any year before Jesus’s