BC/AD and BCE/CE

BC/AD and BCE/CE

How and why did people start using the terms BC and AD?

• The exact history is very vague, because it took hundreds of years for the concept to catch on.

• Before it was determined, ancient cultures kept track of their years based on astrology, any important events, and/or how many years a leader had been ruling.

• Eventually, a Christian came up with the timeline we use today, and it was adopted by the world over hundreds of years as a common way to keep track of and compare time.

• Jesus was obviously incredibly important in Christian Europe.

• in 525 A.D., a monk wanted to work out when exactly Easter would occur in the coming years. He formulated a new table of when the holiday would fall, starting from a year he called “532.”

• He then used what he thought was the year of Jesus's birth, an important event for Christians, as year 1.

• BC = Before Christ

• AD = Anno domini - "the year of our lord"

Multiple Choice

BC means...

• Before Christ

• Before cheese

• By chance

Multiple Choice

AD means...

• After death

• in the year of our lord

• Among Dus

How did we get BCE and CE?

Though it took centuries for A.D. and B.C. to catch on, they stuck. However, some people didn't think it made sense to have religious meanings attached to a dating system used worldwide, especially in the last 30 years.

Therefore, you can now also say...

B.C. = BCE - “before the common era”

AD = C.E. “common era”

Multiple Choice

CE means...

• common era

• come everyone

Multiple Choice

BCE means...

• By Christian estimates

• Before the common era

Multiple Choice

Another name for BC times is..

• CE

• BCE

Multiple Choice

Another name for AD times is..

• CE

• BCE

CE dates which are largest are closest to today (2020).

BCE dates get larger the further back in time they go.

Think of reading historical timelines like reading a math number line.

Reading BCE dates is sort of like reading negative numbers on a number line.

Multiple Choice

Which date is closest to today?

• 300 BCE

• 100 BCE

• 100 CE

• 200 CE

Multiple Choice

Which date is oldest?

• 100 BCE

• 200 BCE

• 200 CE

• 100 CE

Multiple Choice

Which date is the oldest?

• CE 45

• 2 BCE

• CE 2019

• 5,000 BCE

Multiple Choice

Which date is closest to today?

• 12 BC

• AD 345

• AD 187

• 8,987 BC