Information AboutChronology |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CHRONOLOGY | |
| chronology | |
| history | |
| timelines | |
| greek loanwordschronology | |
| history | |
| timelines | |
| greek loanwords | |
| measurement | |
| history | |
| time | |
|
]] (General) Chronology is the science of locating events in Time . An arrangement of events, from either earliest to latest or the reverse, is also called '''a chronology''' or, particularly when involving graphical elements, a Timeline or a Living Graph . See also Chronicle . DEFINITION Unlike Chronometry (i.e. timekeeping), which is part of Physics , (general) chronology, as the science of locating historical events in time, is part of the discipline of ''' History '''. A chronology may be either s. In Judeo-Christian cultures, historical dates in an absolute chronology are understood to be referred to the Christian Era , in combination with the (proleptic) Julian Calendar (originally) and the Gregorian Calendar respectively. CALENDAR AND ERA The familiar terms ‘ Calendar ’ and ‘ Era ’ (within the meaning of a coherent system of numbered calendar years) concern two complementary fundamental concepts of chronology. For example during eight centuries the calendar belonging to the Christian Era , which era was taken in use in the eighth century by Bede , was the Julian calendar, but after the year 1582 it was the Gregorian calendar. Dionysius Exiguus (about the year 500) was the founder of that era, which is nowadays the most widespread dating system on earth. ANNO URBIS CONDITAE ERA Though in Roman antiquity one frequently reckoned back to any supposed year of foundation of the city of Rome, the Anno Urbis Conditae Era , which like the Anno Domini era did not in reality exist yet in antiquity, was used systematically for the first time only about the year 400, namely by the Iberian historian Orosius ; Pope Boniface IV (about the year 600) seems to have been the first who recognized the connection between these two eras (i.e. AD 1 = AUC 754). ASTRONOMICAL ERA Dionysius Exiguus’ Anno Domini era (which contains only calendar years AD) was extended by Bede to the complete Christian era (which contains in addition all calendar years '''BC''' but '''no year zero'''). Ten centuries after Bede the French astronomers Philippe De La Hire (in the year 1702) en Jacques Cassini (in the year 1740), purely in order to simplify certain calculations, put the Julian Dating System (proposed in the year 1583 by Joseph Scaliger ) and with it an '''astronomical era''' into use which contains a Leap Year zero, which the year 1 (AD) precedes but does not exactly coincide with the year 1 BC. Astronomers never proposed seriously to replace our era with their astronomical era (which for that matter coincides exactly with the Christian era where it concerns the calendar years '''after''' the year 4). OTHER CHRONOLOGICAL SUBJECTS Other familiar chronological subjects are for example: , Paschal Full Moon , Lunar Cycle , Solar Cycle , Easter Cycle , Lunar Phase Number , Millennium Question . PREHISTORIC CHRONOLOGIES In the absence of written history, with its Chronicles and King List s, late 19th century archaeologists found that they could develop relative chronologies based on pottery techniques and styles. In the field of Egyptology , William Flinders Petrie pioneered sequence dating to penetrate pre-dynastic Neolithic times, using groups of contemporary artefacts deposited together at a single time in graves and working backwards methodically from the earliest historical phases of Egypt. Compare the American technique of Seriation . Known wares discovered at strata in sometimes quite distant sites, the product of trade, helped extend the network of chronologies. Some cultures have retained the name applied to them in reference to characteristic forms, for lack of an idea of what they called themselves: "The Beaker People " in northern Europe during the 3rd Millennium BCE , for example. The study of the means of placing pottery and other cultural artifacts into some kind of order proceeds in two phases, classification and typology: Classification creates categories for the purposes of description, and typology seeks to identify and analyse changes that allow artifacts to be placed into sequences {Link without Title} . Laboratory techniques developed particularly after mid-20th century helped constantly revise and refine the chronologies developed for specific cultural areas. Unrelated dating methods help reinforce a chronology, an axiom of corroborative Evidence . Ideally, archaeological materials used for dating a site should complement each other and provide a means of cross-checking. Conclusions drawn from just one unsupported technique are usually regarded as unreliable. Bayesian Analysis has recently started to be routinely applied in the analysis of chronological information, including radiocarbon-derived dates, Several legendary sources tend to assign unrealistically long lifespans to pre-historical heroes and monarchs (e.g Egypt, Hebrews, Japanese), if the number of years there reported are understood as years of more than 340 days. One potent explanation for this has been that there have been more than one harvest during the actual year, and memories evolving to legends tend to count each growth period as separate year. Though chronologies formulated before the 1960s are subject to serious skepticism today, more recent results are more robust than readily appears to journalists and enthusiastic amateurs. SEE ALSO Chronologies
Artistic fields
Religious field Economic fields
Techniques
Other EXTERNAL LINKS
FURTHER READING
|
|
|