Holocene calendar facts for kids

The Holocene calendar, or Human era (HE), is a year numbering system that adds 10,000 years to the present Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE) system. It puts the first year near the beginning of the Holocene epoch and the Neolithic revolution. People who like the HE system say that it makes for easier geological, archeological, dendrochronological and historical dating.

The current year of 2024 can be made into a Holocene year by adding the number "1" before it, making it 12024 HE. The HE idea was first thought of by the scientist Cesare Emiliani in 1993 (11993 HE).

Reasons for wanting a new calendar include:

• In the Anno Domini system the birth of Jesus represents the year 1. People now think Jesus was born four years earlier.
• The years BC are counted down when moving from past to future, making calculation of lengths of time difficult.
• The Anno Domini system has no year zero, with 1 BC followed by year 1. It is important to not forget this when calculating lengths of time.

Instead, HE starts at 10001 BC. This is a rough approximation of the start of the current geologic epoch, the Holocene or Recent period. settlements, first cities and agriculture probably started in this period. All important dates in human history can then be listed using a simple increasing date scale with smaller dates always before larger dates.

Conversion

Conversion to the Human Era from Julian or Gregorian AD years can be achieved by adding 10,000. BC years are converted by subtracting the BC year from 10,001.

A useful check is that the last single number of BC and HE equivalent pairs must add up to 1 or 11.

Related pages

• Common Era
• Julian date (JD) – the interval of time in days and fractions of a day since January 1, 4713 BCE, Greenwich noon.

• "News and comment", Geology Today, 20/3 (2004) 89–96.

See also

In Spanish: Calendario holoceno para niños