How long ago was 1450 BC

Sequencing Time

The measurement of time is traditionally based around the birth of Jesus Christ.

•  For events that occurred before Jesus’ birth, type ‘BC’ (an abbreviation for ‘Before Christ’) after the number of the year.

• • For example: 48 BC.

• For events that happened after Jesus’ birth, type ‘AD’ (an abbreviation for the Latin phrase anno domini, which means “Year of our Lord”) before the number of the year.

• • For example: AD 120.

 For those who prefer a non-religious version, the following alternatives are placed after the number of the year:

• BCE (Before Common Era) = BC

• • For example: 48 BC becomes 48 BCE

• CE (Common Era) = AD

• • For example: AD 120 becomes 120 CE

Watch a video explanation on the History Skills YouTube channel:

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Additional notes regarding dates:

• If there isn’t a ‘BC’ or ‘AD’ next to a date, it is probably AD

• Before the birth of Christ, the number of years counts down, but after that, the years count upwards

• There is no year ‘0’: the year 1 BC is followed immediately by AD 1

• ‘BP’ after a number stands for ‘Before the Present’

• ‘Circa’ means ‘around about’ and is a small ‘c.’ before the year. For example: c. 50 BC

Division of Time

To talk about large sections of time, years are grouped together in the following way:

•  Decade               = 10 years

• Century              = 100 years

• Millennium       = 1000 years

 As a result, time can be split into centuries or millennia, as is demonstrated below:

Watch a video explanation on the History Skills YouTube channel:

YearsCenturyMillennium 1000-901 BC10th century BC1st millennium BC900-801 BC9th century BC800-701 BC8th century BC700-601 BC7th century BC600-501 BC6th century BC500-401 BC5th century BC400-301 BC4th century BC300-201 BC3rd century BC200-101 BC2nd century BC100-1 BC1st century BCAD 1-1001st century AD1st millennium ADAD 101-2002nd century ADAD 201-3003rd century ADAD 301-4004th century ADAD 401-5005th century ADAD 501-6006th century ADAD 601-7007th century ADAD 701-8008th century ADAD 801-9009th century ADAD 901-100010th century ADAD 1001-110011th century AD2nd millennium ADAD 1101-120012th century ADAD 1201-130013th century ADAD 1301-140014th century ADAD 1401-150015th century ADAD 1501-160016th century ADAD 1601-170017th century ADAD 1701-180018th century ADAD 1801-190019th century ADAD 1901-200020th century ADAD 2001-present day21st century AD3rd millennium AD

Historical Periods

To make sense of the past, it is divided into larger blocks of time called ‘periods’. Each of these ‘periods’ can be broken down further into smaller times called ‘ages’ and even into smaller times called ‘eras’.

Time PeriodAgesErasApproximate Years

Pre-History 

(The time before humans had developed writing)

History

(From the time humans began writing until now)

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Additional Resources

Most History teachers struggle to teach centuries correctly

Looking for a digital timeline resource?

Grab an easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet timeline here.

Timeline Creator (Years)

A nifty Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that allows the user to enter years and sort events by categories. The spreadsheet maps out the events by category in a tabled view that allows the user to see the relationship between the events. Simple y ... (Read More)