BP

So I was in my library yesterday, a 26-pound Patch squirming in my arms, when my eye catches a book about “common delusions.” I haven’t read it through yet so I’m not sure whether or not I want to publicly plug it for perpetuity, so I won’t give the title and author. But it’s a 300-page large-size paperback whose purpose is to dispel common misconceptions we habitually accept as facts. Things like, “Napoleon was a short man,” or “leap years occur every four years.”

I settled in over a bowl of chicken noodle soup – Patch napping and Little One at kindergarten – primed for some light and interesting reading through this book. And BAM! it hit me. Right on page one. Pure gold!

Under the second listed “delusion” (“The Neanderthals died out”) I spotted this line:

The Neanderthals … lived between approximately 150,000 and 28,000 years BP (Before Present) in Europe, where Homo sapiens sapiens appeared about 40,000 years BP.

BP? “Before Present”? What the heck is this?

Hackles raised immediately. I now had a project.

First reaction: Another example of post-modernism’s hatred and/or fear of Christianity. You know, that silly, quixotic and ulterior attempt to change the way our culture has traditionally labeled Time - the whole BC and AD thing. I posted on this in the early days of the Hopper, here, in case you’re interested.

Second reaction: They’ve upped the ante. Apparently, the attempt to hijack traditional chronology with BCE and CE backfired, and it must be due to that “C”. PMers want that C to stand for “Common,” as in “Before the Common Era,” and “Common Era.” But we all know it really stands for “Christian,” because, ultimately, the number of the year still maintains the birth of Christ as its central reference point (even though it was miscalculated in the middle ages by anywhere from 4 to 7 years).

Then I went down to the writing office and powered up the PC. Patch was stirring and the big hand on the clock was waving frantically at me to go get my daughter from school. I went to Wikipedia (I know, I know) and found out about BP.

Apparently, it’s been around a while, though I never heard it nor read it. Admittedly, I don’t do much reading in archaeology or geology, where it’s used most frequently, and mostly in regards to radiocarbon dating. And perhaps, too, I initially overreacted. It seems that “BP” was created sometime in the late Fifties by the scientific community (before it became so party-line atheistic, I assume). They established January 1, 1950 as the “Present” partly because extensive nuclear testing from the Fifties onwards slightly skewed the global ratios of carbon used in radioactive dating. At least, that’s what Wikipedia tells me. I don’t have the time or energy to research scholarly journals on this further.

So, I’ll ascribe the most altruistic interpretation to “BP” as it relates to radiocarbon dating techniques.

But I don’t want to start reading that Socrates died in 2349 BP. Or that our country declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 174 BP.


UPDATE:

It seems the author of my library book only uses the BP designation writing about the distant past. A few pages later she switches to BC while talking about Stonehenge, Babylon, and Ancient Egypt. Good for her.