1.4 Time and Timelines

• History
• Middelbare school
• mavo, havo
• Leerjaar 1

1.4 Time and Timelines

What you will learn in 

this lesson

• how we measure time
  
• why we divide time into blocks
  
• why people use different calendars
  
• how we calculate with BC and AD
  

word duty

These are words you need to learn for a test.

• universe: all space including all the stars and planets
  
• timeline: line showing the order in which events happened
• time period: a particular period in history
• millennium: a period of 1000 years
  
• century: a period of 100 years
  
• decade: a period of 10 years
  
• AD: Anno Domini (in the year of the Lord)
  the time after the year 1
  
• BC: Before Christ
  : the time before the year 1
  

Keywords

How many years is one century?

1. 10
2. 100
3. 1000
4. 50

In which century were you born?

1. 19th
2. 20th
3. 21st
4. 22nd

What is the oldest period in the past?

1. prehistory
2. middle ages
3. industrial revolution
4. world war 2

 Measuring Time

People have lived on Earth for millions of years. We divide this long period of time into blocks.

Prehistory is the first one.

Prehistory 

People began to write at different times in different parts of the world. So prehistory ended earlier in some places than others. In Egypt it was about 5,000 years ago. In our territory it was about 3.500 years ago. 

What is prehistory?

What century is the year 1111 in?

1. 11th century
2. 2nd century
3. 12th century
4. 111th century

What century is it?

We need to be careful when talking about centuries. 

The sixteenth century is not all the years beginning with 16- . It is 1500-1599. 

This is because the first century AD ends in AD 99. The years from AD 100-199 are the second century AD, and so on. 

The years BC work in the same way.

What century is it?

We need to be careful when talking about centuries. 

The sixteenth century is not all the years beginning with 16- . It is 1500-1599. 

This is because the first century AD ends in AD 99. The years from AD 100-199 are the second century AD, and so on. 

The years BC work in the same way.

What century is the year 102 BC in?

1. 2nd century BC
2. 2nd century
3. 10th century BC
4. 11th century

What century is the year 1075 in?

1. 11th century
2. 10nd century
3. 9th century
4. 107th century

What does it mean if a date has
no BC and no AD at the end?

1. the date can only be the year 0
2. the date is automatically BC
3. the date can be both AD and BC
4. the date is automatically AD

Which year belongs to the 20th century?

1. 2005 AD
2. 1930 BC
3. 1966
4. 2005

Which year belongs to the fifteenth century?

1. 1492
2. 1576
3. 1430 BC
4. 1688 AD

Which year belongs to the
first century BC?

1. 85 BC
2. 103 BC
3. 85
4. 103

Write down one question about something from this lesson that you think is difficult.

Historical timeline