“Before the Present”
Haven’t seen that one before. I thought the current New Age circumlocution to avoid “BC” and “AD” was “BCE” and “CE”. Is “Before the Present” a new and improved way to be hip?
(Interesting thread, BTW, SunkenCiv, and not intending to take the domestication history of canines down a side alley.)
No harm done. :’)
The BP is related to radiocarbon dating. To make it a little confusing, the “present” is actually 1950, which is the baseline because that’s when RC dating became operational. The original limit wasn’t as large as it is now, but when I was a kid, for example, it was about 45,000 years; refinement of the technique and improvements in sensitivity of the technology pushed that up to 50,000 years, and in the best samples, 60,000 years.
Beyond that, other methods have to be used. And RC dating only works on the organic remains (including ash, bone, hair, mummy bandages, wicker baskets, wooden implements, etc).