Historical periods

There’s been a burglary at the museum! Thankfully, the police have tracked down the stolen artefacts. But which collection should each artefact be returned to? The museum’s collections are based on different eras of the past – different historical periods. Let’s learn more about them so we can rehome the artefacts!

History is the study of change over time. Historians divide history into periods based on these changes, so that it’s easier to study and talk about. But not all historians agree on which changes are the important ones. This means they might have different ways of deciding when a historical period starts and ends. One common division considers history that happened before the Christian Messiah, Jesus Christ, was born — or assumed to be born — and history that happened after.

The time before he lived is marked with ‘Before Christ’, or BC for short. The time after is marked Anno Domini – Latin for ‘Year of Our Lord’, that is year ‘0’ – or AD for short. This division is, of course, based on a Christian worldview. Some people use an updated, less religious version that replaces BC with ‘BCE’, meaning Before Common Era, and AD with ‘CE’, meaning Common Era. BCE and CE are often broken down further, according to other major shifts or events that took place.

Anything that happened before around 3000 BCE, when written records began, is prehistory. The next period is the Ancient Period. It tracks the rise and fall of world empires, often called the first human civilisations. The Ancient Period ends with the fall of the Western Roman Empire around 500 CE. Next comes the Medieval period.

This is the period in which world powers rebuilt themselves after the Roman Empire’s collapse. Islam began in modern day Saudi Arabia and quickly spread. Muslim groups in the Middle East faced years of battles with Christians, sent by Europe’s very powerful Catholic church. Towards the end of this period, the Black Death struck Europe, Asia and North Africa, killing more people than any other known plague. Historians mark the end of the Medieval Period between 1400 and 1500 CE.

Around this time, people in Europe began to take interest again in the values and art of the Ancient period, basing plays, paintings, and music on them. It is the start of the Modern Period. During this time, Europeans began colonising other regions of the world. Major developments in technology led to the start of factories and wars and revolutions saw the end of the monarchy in many countries. The Modern Period ended with two world wars.

Anything since the end of the Second World War, 1945, is part of the Contemporary period. Do you notice anything about this way of categorising history? It’s based largely on events in or important to Europe, and goes from past to present in a linear way. Other civilisations understand history quite differently. The important events and rulers that mark the beginning and end of their historical periods are different to those in Europe.

And some cultures view time as a cycle — a repeating passage of seasons or other stretches — rather than a line. There is no single way to frame history. Often, historical periods are biassed towards one culture or religion, or one part of the world. Even so, dividing history into periods is a helpful way to study and organise research …including in our looted museum! The museum is organised into the periods of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern.

Now we can rehome the artefacts in their proper collections!