History
is about
•Time
More than just the hands on a clock
•Evidence
Is it for real? Prove it.
Time in History
What
is time?
How do we measure time?
Why is time important in History?
Why is the calendar useful? Why was
it invented?
When
we study History, we measure
time not distance
We get the sequence of events in the
correct order
If events are in the wrong order, their
meaning can change enormously
What do you think happened?
What do you think the story would be if
the order of events was changed?
Oldest
part of history and does not
have any written record is
‘prehistory’
We use artefacts to study prehistoric
periods
It is divided into ‘ages’ named after
what the people at that time made
their tools from.
 Stone
Age – when
man created tools
from stone
 Bronze Age – when
humans began with
the first widespread
use of copper and
bronze tools
 Iron Age – Iron was
used extensively and
there was some
evidence of written
records
Historians
also break up time into
other ages like Golden Age,
Elizabethan Age etc.
History is split into dynasties e.g
Shang Dynasty. Gupta Dynasty etc.
Dynasty – period of rule by people
from the same family group
 Periods
Shang
dynasty
1523-1027 BC
- Dynasties
Zhou
dynasty
1027-221 BC
Qin
dynasty
221206 BC
Han
dynasty
202 BCAD 220
 How
do Historians decide where to start
counting from?
 AD – Anno Domini (In the year of our Lord)
• Indicate anything that happened after Christ
was born
• Counted forward beginning with 1
• Written AD1945 – but we don’t normally write
like this
• This year was One thousand nine hundred and
forty-five years after the birth of Christ
 About
1,500 years ago, there was a dispute
within the Christian Church over how to date
important events in church history.
 The
Pope asked a monk to develop a standard
method. The monk decided to start with what
he believed was the year Jesus Christ’s birth.
This became year 1.
 The
years before Christ’s birth later became
known as Before Christ, abbreviated B.C. The
monk called the years after Christ’s birth anno
Domini. These Latin words mean ‘in the year of
the Lord’ and are abbreviated A.D.
Time
Specific points
BC - before Christ
AD - Anno Domini
Century - a period of 100 years
The 2nd century AD lasted
from AD 101 to AD 200
 BC
– Before Christ
• We write the letter BC after the number
e.g. 242 BC
• Counted back from the birth of Christ
e.g. Shang ruled China from 1500 BC to
1027 BC
• Higher the date; earlier it had happened
There is
no Year 0
 Han
ruled China from 206 BC to AD 220
 How long did they rule China?
• 206 years before Christ was born
• 220 years after
• 426 years altogether
 AD
and BC are divided into smaller units
• Biggest 1000 years – Millennium
• So AD 1000 is 1000 years after Christ
was born
 Each millennium is divided into centuries
• 100 years – century
 Each century is divided into decades
• 10 years – 1 decade
 1945 is year 5 of the 4th decade of the 9th
century of the 2nd millennium
The notation c, is short for
circa which means
‘around’. We don’t know
the exact year the event
happened but we think it
was probably around that
time
Timeline
A jagged line means
an interval is not
represented
Gupta Dynasty
(c. AD320 – 540)
BC
1600
1000 800 600 400 200 AD 1 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 AD
Dates before AD 1 refer to
the years before the birth of
Jesus Christ
Dates after AD 1 refer to
the years after the birth of
Jesus Christ
AD 1
The year Jesus
Christ was born
 Some
countries have changed AD and BC to
CE – Common Era and BCE – Before
Common Era
 To avoid the linkage to Christ but keeping
the same dates
 Assuming that our starting point is the YEAR
ONE (there is no YEAR ZERO), then BCE,
meaning "before common era" is the
abbreviation used for years that occurred
before the YEAR ONE. CE means "common
era" and is used on all dates starting with
YEAR ONE.
 Sometimes, we
omit the abbreviation CE
if we are only talking about modern
history--no one would say that Barack
Obama was elected in the year 2008 CE,
although they could if they wanted to
Muslim
year has 12 months – all of 28
days
Significant event was when Prophet
Mohammed was driven out of Mecca
to Medina
This move was called hijrah and
happened in the year AD 622
 AD
622 is 1 AH (After Hijrah)
 Dates before Ad 622 is labelled BH
(Before Hijrah)
 Other
calendars are of the Chinese,
Jewish and Indian origins
 Some are used for religious purposes –
not for historical recordings
Imagine
the confusion if everyone
worked in a different system of time
dating
How would this affect: business
arrangements, school holidays,
writing history textbooks etc.
Activity Time
Century
Years
5th century BC
500 - 401 BC
2nd century BC
200 - 101 BC
11th century AD
AD 1001 - 1100
15th century AD
AD 1401 - 1500
21st century AD
AD 2001 - 2100
Arrange these events in chronological order
A
B
C
D
E
Dates
Events
1500 B.C The Indus Valley Civilisation ended
abruptly
A.D 300 The Gupta Dynasty was
established
3000
The original people settled in the
B.C.
Indus Valley
185 B.C. The Mauryan Dynasty collapsed
A.D. 376 King Chandragupta II ruled India
to 415