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Notes Era

An era is a defined span of time used for chronology or historiography. It can refer to periods in a monarchy's history, calendar eras, or geological eras of Earth's history. Eras provide a framework for organizing and measuring the passage of time according to significant reference dates or events. Examples include calendar eras numbered from founding events and geological eras spanning prehistoric timescales independently of human activity.

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Notes Era

An era is a defined span of time used for chronology or historiography. It can refer to periods in a monarchy's history, calendar eras, or geological eras of Earth's history. Eras provide a framework for organizing and measuring the passage of time according to significant reference dates or events. Examples include calendar eras numbered from founding events and geological eras spanning prehistoric timescales independently of human activity.

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An 

era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal


eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological
eras defined for the history of Earth.
Comparable terms are epoch, age, period, saeculum, aeon (Greek aion) and Sanskrit yuga.

Etymology[edit]
The word has been in use in English since 1615, and is derived from Late Latin aera "an era or
epoch from which time is reckoned," probably identical to Latin æra "counters used for calculation,"
plural of æs "brass, money".
The Latin word use in chronology seems to have begun in 5th century Visigothic Spain, where it
appears in the History of Isidore of Seville, and in later texts. The Spanish era is calculated from 38
BC, Before Christ, perhaps because of a tax (cfr. indiction) levied in that year, or due to a
miscalculation of the Battle of Actium, which occurred in 31 BC.
Like epoch, "era" in English originally meant "the starting point of an age"; the meaning "system of
chronological notation" is c. 1646; that of "historical period" is 1741.

Use in chronology[edit]
In chronology, an "era" is the highest level for the organization of the measurement of time. A
"calendar era" indicates a span of many years which are numbered beginning at a specific reference
date (epoch), which often marks the origin of a political state or cosmology, dynasty, ruler, the birth
of a leader, or another significant historical or mythological event; it is generally called after its focus
accordingly as in "Victorian era".

Geological era[edit]
Main article: Era (geology)
In large-scale natural science, there is need for another time perspective, independent from human
activity, and indeed spanning a far longer period (mainly prehistoric), where "geologic era" refers to
well-defined time spans. The next-larger division of geologic time is the eon. The Phanerozoic Eon,
for example, is subdivided into eras.[1] There are currently three eras defined in the Phanerozoic; the
following table lists them from youngest to oldest (BP is an abbreviation for "before present").

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