[SoCal Pubbie]

"Scientists have dated the site to about 9600 to 9300 years old. Archaeologists refer to that as 9600 to 9300 years before present (BP), where 'present' is defined as 1950 AD. "

I've noticed a real trend away from dating history by using the terms B.C or A.D. Often the term BCE (before the common era) is used, which is really ridiculous, since it is the same as B.C. except it does not name the birth of Christ directly. Sort of like renaming Christmas break the "Winter Holiday".

Now this BP is not only embarrassingly PC but more confusing to boot. Calling 1950 the "present" means in order to figure out how old a given date is, you have to add the number of years since 1950, then add that to the date. Since we are still dating on years based on the convention of the birth of Jesus, what's the point?

[Lurking Libertarian]

I've noticed a real trend away from dating history by using the terms B.C or A.D. Often the term BCE (before the common era) is used, which is really ridiculous, since it is the same as B.C. except it does not name the birth of Christ directly. Sort of like renaming Christmas break the "Winter Holiday".

In this field, the practice is much older than recent political correctness. Jewish scholars were the first to use "BCE" and "CE" --probably as long ago as the 19th century--in order to use the same dates as everyone else without explicitly acknowledging Christianity. Moslems picked this up from Jews. Historians and archaeologists who study the Middle East then picked it up, in order to avoid offending the Jews and Moslems they have to deal with in order to get permission for their digs. So in Middle eastern history, you will find that BCE/CE dates have been common for over 50 years.