BP, Before Present, Dating

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Jessica from Omaha, Nebraska.

Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the show.

So, I have a little tale for you that involves my question.

Okay.

Okay, so I was visiting my parents. I live in Omaha, Nebraska, and I was visiting my parents who live in St. Petersburg, Florida, last month. And they have a little private beach where they live. And I noticed that the beach had changed since I had been there last. I think probably because of Hurricane Irma, it had washed a whole bunch of new and different shells on the beach. And so I was looking for shells, and I picked up something, and I realized that I had found an arrowhead.

Cool.

That’s cool.

Yeah, it was such a, like, magical find. And so I ran up to their condo and I got online and I started to research arrowhead because I had no idea how old it could possibly be. And everything I found had the date followed by BP instead of like AD or BC. And I found that really confusing.

BP as in like Betty Paul or something like that.

Or Balboa Park.

Balboa Park, right.

Right, right, exactly. So I did message some archaeologists, but I’m still kind of unclear about why that’s used. And did you ever get a date for your arrowhead?

I did. They said that it ranged in date from about 6,000 to 3,000 BP.

Okay.

That’s outstanding.

So, yeah. So you’ve found a couple of cool things here. One was the arrowhead, and then the other was this unusual way of dating things. Because, as you suggested, traditionally in Western culture, we date things as B.C., before Christ, and A.D., Anno Domini, which means the year of our Lord, right? B.C. and A.D. Some people use BCE for before common era, and other people use CE for common era. So one thing that you’re underscoring is the fact that people measure time differently. There are different ways to look at the passage of years. For example, the Islamic calendar starts at a different point, and the Chinese calendar starts at a different point. So that’s kind of cool in and of itself.

But then the BP is, as you suggested, a way that certain kinds of scientists use to measure time. And it’s a little complicated, but my understanding of it is that it’s based on the use of radiocarbon dating, which started, in a practical sense, around the year 1950. And so BP stands for before present. And that moment is the first day of January in 1950, which is about when radiocarbon dating started. And it’s a way of dating back in time.

It’s so old.

I didn’t even realize that. I mean, I guess just naively, I didn’t even realize that something man-made like that would exist and I would find it.

Yeah.

You know, just in Florida.

Yeah, that’s great.

It’s so cool.

It’s fantastic.

I love it.

It’s so cool.

Well, thank you so much. What an interesting, interesting thing to learn.

That’s great.

What are you going to do with it?

Well, I was carrying it around with me, but then I felt super anxious that I would lose it. But I also felt really cocky having it. Like I had a little secret, like I had the oldest thing and nobody knew it. So now I just have it on display in my house.

That’s nice.

Beachcomber’s dream.

Yeah.

Congratulations. Jessica, thanks for calling. We really appreciate it.

Thanks, guys.

Have a great day.

That’s super cool.

Bye.

Bye.

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