Timelines and Chronology

Master timelines! Understand BC/AD, BCE/CE, and event order to grasp history's flow.

Timeline Importance to history Chronologyis very important when studying history, which is the order in which events occur. Without this it would be impossible for historians to establish cause-and-effect relationships from various historical events or time periods. The basis for having this done is therefore through a timeline. A timeline is a graphical representation of the time span on a line. Its image offers historians the essential information for studying history, breaking it down.B.C. or A.D. are the 2 measurements of timelines used in the U.S. Both are used to distinguish between ancient and modern times. The difference is their origin in use. Christian historians used the B.C., in other words "before Christ" while A.D. is Latin for "Anno Domini" meaning "Our Lord's Year. "Before the Common Era" (BCE) and "Common Era (CE) do not have any religious connections, so that is why historians are preferring to use them these days. Timeline Vocabulary Matching Match the word with the proper definition Chronology The order in which events occur Cause and effect: an event happens because of an earlier event Timeline Graphical representation of a span of time on a line BC Before Christ and Anno Domini BCE Before Common Era, and Common Era; Point of Origin Event that starts a timeline Point of Origin When creating a timeline what needs to be determined first?Usually a timeline creator will pick the beginning and end dates. But how do we determine what the beginning date is? Most of the time an important event is used to start the timeline. This is called the point of origin. In our year numbering system there was an event that occurred 2021 years ago, and that became known as the point of origin. Do you know what that event was?That's right, the point of origin for our timeline is the birth of Jesus Christ. Because so many people in Europe were followers of Christianity, that event was the most important event to them as a culture, so it makes sense that that is the date they chose.However, other cultures and religions have different points of origin for counting the year. Did you know that is many countries in the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Turkey, etc) the year is currently 1442? That is because their point of origin is the date that Muhammed started the religion of Islam. What event marks the point of origin for the current year or 2021? Birth of Muhammad Birth of Jesus The world was created BC and AD Now we know that the current year is based on the point of origin of the birth of Jesus Christ. However, weren't there people alive before Jesus was born? Of course there were! But because they were born before the Point of Origin, we have to count them a different way on the timeline.To do this, we have to imagine that years on a number line.Looking at this number line, can you identify the year that Jesus was born?That would be AD 1, which is the first year Jesus was alive according to early Christian Church leaders.Everything that occurred before Jesus was born is called BC. BC stands for Before Christ, meaning before Christ was born. You can also think of these BC numbers as negative numbers on a number line, and the AD numbers as positive numbers, however, is not a year 0 in this number system.Finally, what about the people who are not Christian? Do they have to still use the year system that relies on his birthday? Well, kind of. Historians and non Christians use the same number system, but they call BC and AD something else. They use the non-religious terms BCE and CE. CE is the same as AD but it means Common Era. BCE is the same as BC but it means Before Common Era. Its important to know the difference between BCE and AD because both terms are used interchangeably. What is the year that Jesus was born? 0 AD -1 AD 1 AD 1 BC Which would be considered a negative number on a number line? BC AD CE Which of the following is an accurate statement? BCE=CE AD = CE BC = AD CE = BCE BC = BCE AD = CE Timeline Practice Click on the blue dots and write in the years from the list of years below. The years must go in the correct order from earliest year on the left side, to the most recent year on the right side. Your point of origin should be in the middle.LIST OF YEARS TO PLACE ON TIMELINE:500 B.C.2000 A.D.1000 B.C.1000 A.D.500 A.D.1500 B.C.1500 A.D.1 A.D. 1500 B.C. 1000 B.C. 500 B.C. 1 A.D. 500 A.D 1000 A.D. 1500 A.D. 2000 A.D. Why are Timelines important?What is something they help us do?