BEFORE PRESENT Meaning and
Definition
-
Before Present (BP) refers to a dating system commonly used in archaeology, paleontology, and various other fields to express the elapsed time before a fixed reference point, which is often the year 1950 CE. The BP scale is primarily used to determine the age of relics, events, or geological phenomena that occurred prior to this reference point. The term "present" in this context does not refer to the current year, but to a specific point in time which is fixed as zero, enabling researchers to compare and establish chronologies.
This dating system came about as a result of the radiocarbon dating technique, which measures the decay of carbon-14 in organic materials. Radiocarbon dating can provide a reliable estimate of the age of an artifact or natural sample up to roughly 50,000 years ago. Since the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has fluctuated over time, the BP scale was established to account for these variations and standardize dates to a common reference point.
When stating a date as BP, the number represents the years before the reference point. For example, a date of 10,000 BP means that the event or artifact being referred to took place 10,000 years before the year 1950 CE. It is important to note that the term "BP" is often used interchangeably across disciplines, facilitating communication and the establishment of accurate timelines in various scientific fields.
Common Misspellings for BEFORE PRESENT
- vefore present
- nefore present
- hefore present
- gefore present
- bwfore present
- bsfore present
- bdfore present
- brfore present
- b4fore present
- b3fore present
- bedore present
- becore present
- bevore present
- begore present
- betore present
- berore present
- befire present
- befkre present
- beflre present
- befpre present
Etymology of BEFORE PRESENT
The phrase "before present" (BP) is primarily used in scientific and archaeological contexts to denote a particular time scale used for dating events or artifacts. The etymology of "before present" is closely tied to the development of radiocarbon dating.
Radiocarbon dating is a method of determining the age of organic materials by measuring the amount of radioactive carbon-14 (C-14) present in them. This technique was first introduced by chemist Willard Libby in the late 1940s, and it revolutionized archaeological and paleontological dating.
To establish a standard reference point to measure time, Libby chose the year 1950 AD as "present" or "zero" for radiocarbon dating purposes. He defined the year 1950 as the present because it was the time when the method was developed and could be consistently applied.
