An Introduction to Some Chronological Terms used in Dating Aspects of the Historic Environment.
Outlined below is a list of time periods that you may see in use to describe sites, structures and artefacts. The dates given are approximate and specific to Somerset as they may vary in different parts of the country and wider world. Not all of the terms are used all of the time and not all of them exist in the set chronology used by the HER database. Where a term is used in the HER database a period summary has been written and can accessed via a link at the bottom of the page.
Historians and archaeologists have used a number of different terms to classify and define what they see as distinct periods of time. Breaking up time in this way makes it easier to understand.
The two most basic divisions of our past in use are ‘Prehistoric’ and ‘Historic’. These are attributed on the basis of whether the people living at the time had written records. Within these two basic periods further divisions have been made. In prehistory the divisions have been based on the type of materials and tools used. The main difference being between tools made of stone and tools made of metal. The point of division between one period and next is often an arbitrary one as technological changes may be gradual and at different rates in different circumstances. The use of the old technology may take some time to completely disappear and technologies are often in use at the same time.
In the historic period in England time has been divided according to a number of criteria, not all of which are distinct or in general usage. Several periods have been defined according to the dominant race, or the widespread presence of their culture and lifestyle, of people in an area, such as ‘Roman’ or ‘Saxon’.
Subsequently, periods were defined according to the Royal house on the throne, or even named after the reigns of the individual monarchs such as Plantagenet or Georgian. These periods are much more likely to be used to describe specific architectural styles and the Somerset SMR does not use the latter terms but they may occur in some descriptions, which is why they have been defined here.
Time has also been described in specific units such as Centuries, blocks of 100 years. There have been 20 complete Centuries since the year 1AD. The 1st Century AD is those years from 1AD to 100AD and the 2nd Century AD is those years from 101AD to 200AD. It is important to remember that when people refer to the ‘1800s’ for example, they are referring to the years of the 19th, not 18th, century.
To learn more of how a particular historic period may be defined please click on the links below.
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