History, years and people before our era. World map BC

Historical chronology, as is known, is divided into two periods. At first, there was a time that contemporaries called the stage before our era. It ends with the onset of the first year. At this time, our era began, which until today continues. And although today, naming the year, people do not say "ne.", Nevertheless, this is implied.

First calendars

The process of human evolution created the need to order dates and times. The ancient farmer needed to know as precisely as possible when it was better for him to sow seeds, to a stockbreeder-nomad - when to move to other territories in order to have time to provide his livestock with food.

So began to appear the very first calendars. And they were based on observations of celestial bodies and nature. Different peoples also had temporary calendars that differed from each other. For example, the Romans conducted their chronology from the day of the founding of Rome - from 753 BC, while the Egyptians - from the first moment of the reign of each of the dynasties of the pharaohs. Own calendars also created many religions. For example, in Islam, a new era begins with the year when the Prophet Muhammad was born.

Julian and Gregorian calendars

In 45 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar founded his calendar. In it the year began from the first of January and lasted twelve months. This calendar was called Julian.

The one we use today was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory the Twelfth. He managed to eliminate some significant inaccuracies, accumulated from the first Ecumenical Council. At that time, they were a whole ten days. The difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars increases about a day for each century, and today it is already thirteen days.

In history, chronology always plays a big role. After all, it is important to imagine at what time period a significant event occurred in the life of mankind, whether it was the creation of the first instruments of labor or the beginning of the Hundred Years War. They say that a story without dates looks like mathematics without numbers.

Religious form of chronology

Since the beginning of our era is calculated from the year that is considered the date of the birth of Jesus, in the religious version the corresponding record is often used: from the Nativity of Christ and up to it. Until now, there is absolutely no accurate historical data about when life appeared on our planet. And only based on religious and historical artifacts, scientists can draw conclusions about when something happened about this or that event. In this case, the years before our era are indicated in chronological order.

Zero year

The mention of the section between the time before and after Christ is related to the calculation in the astronomical record made according to the numbers of integers on the coordinate axes. A zero year is not accepted for use in religious or secular notations. But it is very common in astronomical recording and in ISO 8601 - an international standard issued by an organization such as the International Organization for Standardization. It describes the format of dates and times, and gives recommendations for their application in an international context.

Countdown

The concept of "BC" got its spread in the chronology after its use by the Venerable Bede - a Benedictine monk. He wrote about it in one of his treatises. And already since 731 the calculation of time was divided into two periods: before and after our era. Gradually, almost all countries in Western Europe began to move to this calendar. The most recent of these was Portugal. It happened on August 22, 1422. Until January 1, 1700, Russia used the chronological calculus of the Constantinople era. For the starting point in it was adopted the Christian era "from the creation of the world." By and large, at the heart of many eras was laid the relationship between the "days of the creation of the world" and the entire duration of its existence. And Constantinople was created at Constance, and the chronology was calculated from the first of September 5509 BC. However, since this emperor was not a "consecutive Christian", his name, and at the same time, his time count, are mentioned reluctantly.

Prehistoric and historical epochs

History is a prehistoric and historical epoch. The first of them begins with the appearance of the first person, and ends when the writing has appeared. The prehistoric era is divided into several time periods. The basis of their classification is archaeological findings. These materials, from which people before our time produced tools of labor, the period when they used them, formed the basis for recreating not only the time frame, but also the names of the stages of the prehistoric era.

The historical era consists of periods of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, as well as the New and New Times. In different countries they came at different times, so scientists do not have the ability to determine their exact time frame.

The beginning of our era

It is common knowledge that the new era at the very beginning was not counted as a continuous count of years, for example, from the first year up to, say, the current one. Her chronology began much later, with the date of the Nativity of Christ. It is believed that the first to calculate it was a Roman monk named Dionysius the Small in the sixth century, that is, more than five hundred years after the date of the event. To get the result, Dionysius first counted the date of Christ's Resurrection, based on the church tradition that the Son of God was crucified in the thirty-first year of his life.

The date of his Resurrection, according to the Roman monk, is March 25, 5539, according to the calendar "from Adam", and the year of the Nativity of Christ, therefore, became 5508th by the Byzantine era. It must be said that Dionysius's calculations up to the fifteenth century raised doubts in the West. In Byzantium itself, they were never recognized as canonical.

History of BC

From the seventh to the third millennium BC on the planet was the era of the Neolithic - the transition period appropriating the form of economy, namely hunting and gathering, to the productive - farming and cattle breeding. At this time weaving, grinding stone tools and pottery appeared.

The end of the fourth is the beginning of the first millennium BC: the Bronze Age reigns on the planet. The spread of metal and bronze weapons, there are nomadic cattlemen. The bronze age was replaced by the Iron Age . At this time, Egypt was ruled by the first and second dynasties, which united the country into a single centralized state.

In the years 2850-2450 BC. E. The economic rise of the Sumerian civilization began. From the 2800th to the 1100th, the Aegean, or the culture of Ancient Greece, rises. Almost at the same time, the Indus civilization was born in the Indus valley, and the highest flourishing of the kingdom of Troy was observed.

Around 1190 BC. E. Collapsed powerful Hittite power. Almost four decades later, the Elamite king seized Babylonia, and the flowering of his power came.

In 1126-1105 years BC. E. Came the reign of the Babylonian sovereign, Nebuchadnezzar. In 331-m in the Caucasus formed the first state. In 327 BC. E. Was held by the Indian company of Alexander the Great. During this period, there were a lot of events, including the slave uprising in Sicily, the Allied war, the Mithridates wars, the march of Mark Antony to the Parthians, the reign of Emperor Augustus.

And, finally, between the eighth and fourth years before Christ Christ was born.

New chronology

For different peoples, the concept of chronology has always been different. Each state solved this problem independently, while being guided by both religious and political motives. And only by the nineteenth century all Christian states established a single point of reference, which is still used today under the name "our era". Calendar of the ancient Maya, the Byzantine era, the Hebrew calendar, the Chinese - they all had their own date for the creation of the world.

For example, the Japanese calendar began in 660 BC and was updated after each death of the emperor. The Buddhist era will soon enter the year 2484, and the Hindi calendar in 2080. The Aztecs renewed their chronology once in 1454, after the death and rebirth of the Sun. Therefore, if their civilization did not perish, for them today would be only 546 a new era ...

Ancient world map

BC travelers were also interested in the world and compiled drawings of their routes. They transferred them to a tree bark, sand or papyrus. The first map of the world appeared over many millennia before the new era. It was the rock paintings that became one of the first images. While people were scouting the Earth, they were especially interested in the ancient maps of old eras. Some of them represent our planet as a huge island washed by the ocean, others can already see the contours of the continents.

The Babylonian Map

The very first card, created before our era, was a small clay tablet found in Mesopotamia. It dates from the end of the eighth - the beginning of the seventh centuries to our era and is the only one that reached us from the Babylonians. The earth is surrounded by seas called "salt water". Behind the water are triangles, which, evidently, signify mountains of distant lands.

This map indicates the state of Urartu (modern Armenia), Assyria (Iraq), Elam (Iran) and Babylon itself, in the middle of which the Euphrates flows.

Map of Eratosthenes

Even the ancient Greeks represented the Earth as a sphere and very gracefully argued this. Pythagoras, for example, said that everything is harmonious in nature, and the most perfect form in it is a sphere in the form of which our planet exists. The first map, compiled with this image of the Earth, belongs to Eratosthenes. He lived in the third century BC in Cyrene. It is believed that this scientist, who headed the Alexandria Library, came up with a term such as "geography." It was he who, for the first time before our era, divided the world into parallels and meridians and called them "walking next" or "midday" lines. The world of Eratosthenes was one island that was washed by the North from above and the Atlantic Ocean from below. He was divided into Europe, Ariana and Arabia, India and Scythia. In the south was Taprobe - the present Ceylon.

At the same time, it seemed to Eratosthenes that there were "antipodes" in the other hemisphere, which were impossible to reach. After all, people then, including the ancient Greeks, thought that the equator is so hot that the sea is boiling there, and all the living things are burned. And, on the contrary, the poles are very cold, and no one survives there.

Map of Ptolemy

For several centuries the main map was considered to be another map of the world. It was compiled by the ancient Greek scholar Claudius Ptolemy. Created about one hundred and fifty years before Christ, it was part of the eight-volume "Guide to Geography."

In Ptolemy Asia occupied space from the North Pole to the equator, displacing the Pacific, while Africa flowed seamlessly into the terra incognita, occupying the entire South Pole. In the north of Scythia was a mythical Hyperborea, and nothing was said about America or Australia. It was thanks to this map that Columbus began to travel to India, while sailing westward. And even after the discovery of America, they continued to use the map from Ptolemy for some time.