Why Use BP?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Why Use BP?
We use the term BP, the abbreviation for Before Present meaning "years ago", for the following reasons:

BP is the term which has been used for the last 50 years by the scientists who radiocarbon date archaeological "finds". Radiocarbon dating is the earliest of the dating techniques currently in use and “Present” in this context means the year 1950, the year chosen once the "half-life" of radioactive carbon C-14 had been established.

All the dates given for prehistoric "finds", both human remains and artefacts, are approximations because they rely upon contextual evidence and scientific dating techniques - both of which may be contaminated or otherwise be open to misinterpretation. Omo Man, the skull of the earliest Homo sapiens found beside the Omo River in Ethiopia, was recently redated to 195,000 BP +/-, having initially been dated to 130,000 BP +/- and later on to 160,000 BP +/-. Whereas the dating of historical events, which are based on the written down stories of participants, using BC and AD, is precise and accurate - to the year and the month, eg. Herodotus records the battle of Thermopylae (and the last stand of the 300 Spartans) being fought in August 480 BC, or even to the day and the hour, eg. the D-Day Landings in Normandy at 6.30 am on 6th June 1944.

Recorded or written down history requires a written language, the first evidence of which dates back to Mesopotamia (the "Fertile Crescent" - what is now Lebanon, Syria and Iraq) no earlier than 3,000 BC. Thus the historical record only covers the last 5,000 years, whereas the timescale for "prehistory" (ie. before history) potentially stretches back 6 million years +/-, to when our ancestral species separated from the Great Apes.

One Daily Newspaper would not accept this explanation and chose to interpret our use of BP (or non-use of BC/AD) as an example of "creeping secularism", ie. another attempt to deny the significance of the birth of Christ and denigrate Christian values, and of "political correctness", ie. the desire to abandon the established Western European dating system in over-zealous conformity to "multi-culturalism" and in deference to countries like China, which use different dating systems.

However we maintain that the use of BC/AD, the historical dating system, for dating prehistoric "finds" and events would be intellectually dishonest, by pretending to an accuracy in dating that cannot be justified, as well as being simply confusing for most people.

[Deep Sea Isopod]

I've noticed that CE (Common Era) and BCE(Before Common Era) didn't last long.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've noticed that CE (Common Era) and BCE(Before Common Era) didn't last long.

Thank god for that.

[The Dawktor]

BP = Blood Pressure! meh!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

BP = Blood Pressure! meh!

You're probably one of those people who thinks 220/185 is bad.

[The Dawktor]

BP = Blood Pressure! meh!

You're probably one of those people who thinks 220/185 is bad.

It is when your BP is 0/0 you need to start getting concerned!
High BP is a whole lot better than no BP at all!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

BP = Blood Pressure! meh!

You're probably one of those people who thinks 220/185 is bad.

It is when your BP is 0/0 you need to start getting concerned!
High BP is a whole lot better than no BP at all!

One of my uncles demonstrated that recently. He was morbidly obese and thought the doctor's orders to loose weight silly as "I'm already on the skinny side." This at 405 pounds, 5', 9" in height. I think they buried him yesterday.

[ficklefiend]

BP= British Pharmacopoeia

[Pappa]

BP= British Pharmacopoeia

Which contained cannabis until the 1970s.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

BP= British Pharmacopoeia

Which contained cannabis until the 1970s.

I really hate henry j. anslinger.

[Pappa]

BP= British Pharmacopoeia

Which contained cannabis until the 1970s.

I really hate henry j. anslinger.

He was just trying to protect American cotton interests.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

BP= British Pharmacopoeia

Which contained cannabis until the 1970s.

I really hate henry j. anslinger.

He was just trying to protect American cotton interests.

He was looking for an excuse to keep his job when Prohibition ended.

[Pappa]

BP= British Pharmacopoeia

Which contained cannabis until the 1970s.

I really hate henry j. anslinger.

He was just trying to protect American cotton interests.

He was looking for an excuse to keep his job when Prohibition ended.

He was coming up with an excellent reason why he should have been assassinated.