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era

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

era period of historic time. In geology, it is the name applied to large divisions of geological process, e.g., Paleozoic era (see geology ). In chronology an era is a period reckoned from a fixed point in time, as before or after the birth of Christ—before Christ, BC; Anno Domini [year of the Lord], AD The points best known for Western history are the creation of the world (Jewish, equivalent to 3761 BC; Byzantine, 5508 BC); the founding of the city of Rome [753 BC; year marked A.U.C. for ab urbe condita (from the founding of the city)]; the Hegira , the flight of Muhammad from Mecca (AD 622; abbreviation descr='[AH]'); and the founding of the Olympic games in ancient Greece (776 BC; time in Olympiads). Some people use C.E. (originally, Christian era, now common era) and descr='[BCE]' (before common era) in place of AD and BC, respectively. Since in different calendars years are of different lengths and do not begin on the same day (see calendar ), several factors have to be used in changing the year of one era to that of another, and even with conversion charts there are still difficulties. Because of poor time calculation in earlier times, there may be anomalies in dating. Thus, the beginning of the Christian era, originally fixed probably by Dionysius Exiguus , was set a little too late. Therefore the actual birth of Jesus must be dated a little earlier, probably in 4 BC The term epoch is often confused with era in writing.

Author not available, ERA., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008

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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press