B.C. Dates!

[Mike]

I have often wondered how archaeologists and historians
can state that something is from 5,000 years B.C., ( Before Christ).

I do know that there is carbon dating and nuclear content
dating which allows them to work backwards a certain number
of years then deduct 2015 from the results, but without artifacts,
or anything that can be tested, how do they do it?

What prompts me to ask this question is an article that I read
in a newspaper about the eclipse, it stated:- "The earliest record
of a total eclipse is on a Babylonian clay tablet dated May 3, 1375
BC".

How do they know, how can they tell, did they even have a month of
May way back then, nobody can explain this to me and I have asked
many people over the years.

We work from the birth of Christ and call it AD, Anno Domini, but
what was used before, this really puzzles me.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Mike.

 

[Josiah]

The tablet stated a date using some ancient calendar which the scholars were able to convert into our calendar.

 

[Warrigal]

Also, with something as mathematically predictable as an eclipse it is possible to reverse the time line to determine the dates and parts of the earth where previous eclipses would have been visible. This should allow a date in our terms that would be checked against the Babylonian calendar.

 

[hollydolly]

I'm always fascinated by your vast knowledge of such varied subjects..DW.. it's always a learning curve to read your posts in discussions

 

[Warrigal]

Thanks Hollydolly, although I forget where I put my car keys and can't remember my appointments (I've always been like this) I do remember things that I am interested in - science, maths, astronomy etc.

Hubby thinks I should go on a TV game show but they would only have to ask me a question about popular culture - music, sport etc - and I'm stymied.

 

[Rob]

Also, with something as mathematically predictable as an eclipse it is possible to reverse the time line to determine the dates and parts of the earth where previous eclipses would have been visible. This should allow a date in our terms that would be checked against the Babylonian calendar.

Yes, this would almost certainly be how they arrived at a date to that accuracy. Carbon dating alone would not be that accurate and not applicable anyway as it only applies to things that were once living. There are many methods of dating things and gaining a surprising amount of information from them. Tree rings can give you information about average seasonal temperatures up to about 1,000 years ago, ice cores from Antarctica can tell you about volcanic events dating back hundreds of thousands of years, rock strata can provide information on, for instance, the 'dinosaur killer' asteroid that hit in the vicinity of Mexico some 65 million years ago, and beyond that, by using other radioactive elements with longer half-lives, we can date rocks going back almost to the time the Earth solidified, 3-4 billion years.

 

[jujube]

At lot of times nowadays, they use the terms B.C.E. (Before Christian Era) and C.E. (Christian Era). I guess that's more PC than B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini..'Year of our Lord').