Re: Standardized World Chronology

Timothy,

Wonderful suggestion!  I've been interested in this line of inquiry for
some time now, though you have articulated it publicly.  There is already,
as far as I know, at least one other suggested framework for
reconstructing how we view the passage of time, see:
<http://simpleage.com/>.  As well, there is an interesting article about
time at the following URL <http://205.160.244.10/~vnn2/TIME_ht.htm>.

Displacing the current hegemony of the Christian time framework is perhaps
unthinkable within the next 100 years or so, at a minimum (barring some
major catastrophe of worldwide significance). As such, a more positive
tactic would be to create an alternative time framework and see if it
gains adherence by sheer momentum of its logic and scientific use.

Creating such an alternative could proceed by means of a separate
listserv dedicated to analyzing alternative proposals.  At the very least,
such communication regarding time and its passage would at least determine 
if there are better, more useful, alternatives to pursue.  I would think
that a minimum of 10-20 years of discussion would be necessary before
sufficient agreement on an alternative frameword could be formulated and
then presented publicly; though I may be persuaded otherwise in the
course of time.

______________________________________________________________________________
Colin S. Cavell                        "The absence of romance in my history
Department of Political Science        will, I fear, detract somewhat from its
Thompson Tower                         interest; but if it be judged useful by
Box 37520                              those inquirers who desire an exact
University of Massachusetts            knowledge of the past as an aid to the
Amherst, MA  01003-7520                interpretation of the future, which in
INTERNET:  cscpo@polsci.umass.edu      the course of human things must resemble
VOICE:     (413) 546-3408              if it does not reflect it, I shall be
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~cscpo   content.  In fine, I have written my
                                       work, not as an essay which is to win
                                       the applause of the moment, but as a
                                       possession for all time."

                                       --Thucydides, c. 471-400 B.C.E.,
                                       "The History of the Peloponnesian War"
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__________________________________________
On Mon, 12 Feb 2001, Timothy Comeau wrote:

> As someone who likes to occasionally dabble in the study of ancient history, 
>I 
> find all of those BC negative numbers immensensely annoying. It robs me
> of an ability to appreciate the time spans of things, in the way that I
> can appreciate the 1000 year difference between the end of the Roman
> empire and the stirrings of the Italian Renaissance. In BC terms 1000BC
> and 1AD is a muddled confusion, since there is that invisible border
> arbitrarily imposed, and as we all know, incorrectly, by the Catholic
> church. 
> 
> Why can't the academic historians get together and work out some kind of 
> standardized world chronology? Something that would cast ancient history
> into a positive scale of order. I've done research into this myself, for
> example, using the Roman Chronology, or the Egyptian in order to "get a
> feel" for the stretches of human history.
> 
> What I'd like to see is historians getting together at a conference and 
> deciding on a particular day in ancient history when our international
> chronology could be established. Civilization is what, 10, 000 years old
> approximately? Shouldn't we keep this in mind, have some form of
> reminder, have an academic chronological system that would make this the
> 12th of February in the year 10,876 for example (I just made that up to
> illustrate)? 
> 
> This is the year 2755 in the Roman chronology.
> This is the year 6242 in the Egyptian chronology.
> This is the year 5762 in the Jewish chronology.
> This is the year 1421 in the Islamic chronology (changes over to 1422 on 
> February 25th). 
> 
> Using the Egyptian model as an example:
> 
> Socrates would have lived from 3771-3840
> Julius Caesar would have lived from 4141-4197.
> 
> The first atomic explosion would have occurred in the year 6186.
> 
> As well, I realize that there are considerations that would make it somewhat 
> inaccurate regarding the Gregorian and  all that, however, what I'm
> proposing is a sort of Kelvin scale for chronologies - we all use
> Imperial or Celsius in our daily lives, but scientist use Kelvin to
> gauge the relative values in the scale. I can't imagine the Christian
> chronology disappearing anytime soon, since it has achieved a world wide
> infiltration (last weeks Israeli elections had a 2001 graphic instead of
> a 5762 one). And we all know that the Jewish and Islamic calendars are
> lunar, so they don't cross over very well into the solar.
> 
> So, in conclusion, what do you all think? Is this do-able?
> 
> TIMOTHY COMEAU
>