4. Numeracy in History

Numeracy in History

Numeracy is an important part of life. As we have seen earlier, we use numeracy everyday.


Numeracy is also an important part in history.
Firstly, chronology is important to know.

Chronology is a word that we need a definition for before we can move on.

Chronology means the arrangement of events and dates in order that they happened.

Dates

While studying history you will come across dates. Dates are very important to history. All history is dated so we can understand where things, people and events fit and their significance in history.

BCE/BC and CE/AD

We divide our history in half. We use the christian tradition to divide time between the time before Jesus Christ (the christian deity/savior/god) was meant to be born and the time after he was born. There is no year zero so the chronology goes from 1 BC to 1 AD.

For example, it is now 2013 so it has been two thousand and thirteen years after the birth of Christ.
We call the time Before Christ BC and the time after Christ AD.
AD means Anno Domini which is Latin for 'The year of our lord'. So traditional dating of history is BC and AD.

BUT!

Modern scholars (experts in history) have changed what the division means. They have kept the same dates but changed the terms they use. So when you look at historical dates you may see 33 BCE or 500 AD!! 

As an example, we live in 2013 CE. (Although we don't need to use AD for modern dates, which is explained later)

Alexander the Great was born in 356 BCE

WHY DID THEY DO THAT??

Probably to confuse everyone!

On a serious note, they changed the the words and the meaning to move away from the religious tradition.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN??

Confused? well let me explain.

• BCE means Before Common Era.
• CE means Common Era.

Now they have divided history between, Before [the] Common Era and the start of the Common Era.

Now 1 BC to 1 AD becomes 1 BCE to 1 CE.

Remember 

Traditionally, historians would use BC and AD. 

Now they would use BCE and CE.
But both are still used.
Both are right.

Remember that it doesn't change the dates.
In recent modern history, the AD/CE is left out. So if you see a date that doesn't have BC/BCE or AD/CE then it is safe to assume it is in the Common Era (CE).

This video will further explain the process of chronology.

So when you read history, you will come across both BC/AD and BCE/CE as a dating system.   

Centuries 

We, as historians, also count history in centuries.
A century is a hundred years
A millennium is a thousand years (plural is millennia)


 "Here are some examples 

• The sixth century BCE includes all of the years from 600-501 BCE.
• The sixth century CE includes all of the years from 501-600 CE.
• The year 1895 BCE falls in the nineteenth century BCE .
• The year 45 CE falls in the first century CE .

In general, if you know the year, you add 1 to the first two digits to get the century, unless it ends in double-zero (00). Thus, 1997 is in the 19+1 century, or the 20th century. 1800 is in the 18th century."

These examples are taken from 

Jones, J. (2002)., How to use dates in history, taken from http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/misc/dates.htm

To finish, we will take a link to a Glogster showing a chronological timeline.
Please, click on this link.

Alternatively, this link will take you to a Glogster on the life in the Australian goldfields.