Ways of Dating Historical Events - History Notes Form One
Ways of dating historical events
Historians divide time into days, weeks, months, years, decades, generations, centuries, millennia, periods and ages.
A decade is a period of ten years.
A generation is a period for children to grow into adulthood and have their own children. This period is commonly 30 years.
A century is a period of 100 years.
A millennium is a period of 1,000 years.
Age is a period during which a particular historical phenomenon dominates. It may cover several years, centuries or millennia.
Known ages in History include
- · The Stone Age
- · The Iron Age
- · The Industrial Age
- · The Nuclear Age
- · The Digital Age
A period is determined by one continuous event lasting for some years. Examples include the period of long-distance trade in East Africa, the period of the slave trade, and the period of colonial rule in Africa.
Time division in History
A starting point for time division in History has been chosen. The starting time is known as year zero. The period from zero onwards is called the Common Era (CE).
Previously, this period was known as Anno Domino (AD), which meant years after the birth of Jesus Christ. The period before year zero is called Before Common Era (BCE), previously known as Before Christ (BC). For example, the ruler of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar, died in 44BCE.
Dating historical events
There are four main ways of determining dates. These are recalling events, language studies, carbon 14, and Potassium-argon.
i. Recalling Events
In this method, one has to remember important events. Examples of such events are famines, wars, droughts, eclipses of the sun or moon, volcanic eruptions, floods, epidemics, arrival of strangers, age groups, births and deaths. This method is useful in studying societies which did not keep written records.
ii. Language studies
Dates can also be determined by studying languages. For example, foreign names of crops, animals and food have been introduced into Kiswahili.
Thus, by determining when those names and words started being used in a particular society, one can tell the origin of those names and words and determine when foreigners came, and the inhabitants began to grow such crops.
Other concepts might emerge almost simultaneously, such as karafuu, coffee or cotton plantations.
iii. Carbon-14 dating
This is a scientific method of determining dates. It is used to determine the dates for the remains of plants and animals that died many years ago.
Carbon 14 is a carbon element that plants and other living organisms absorb. When living organisms die, carbon 14 starts decreasing from their bodies at a constant rate.
In laboratories, scientists measure the amount of carbon 14 that has remained in a particular plant or animal to find out the number of years that have passed since the plant or animal died.
iv. Potassium-argon
Archaeological materials can be dated using another scientific method known as Potassium-argon. This technique dates archaeological remains associated with inorganic materials, particularly volcanic rocks or ash, that were formed millions of years ago.
Ordering historical events
Historians use illustrations such as timelines, time graphs, family trees, and time charts to show how historical events followed each other.
(a) Time Line
(c) Time Chart
(d) Family Tree
Activity1.1
Design a three-generation family tree, to show how the family tree can help you to understand your generation.