Using Food to Understand Time

How do we determine what year it is? In 525, a man named Dionysius Exiguus came up with the dating system that we still use today. He was a Christian and decided to keep track of years based on his religion. He chose the birth of Christ for the first year and called all time after it Anno Dommini (AD), which means "in the year of the lord." The time before the birth of Christ is referred to as Before Christ (BC).

Some historians today use different terms for these time periods, though the years are the same. They refer to the BC era as B.C.E., which stands for Before the Common Era. They refer to the A.D. era as C.E., which stands for the Common Era.

Today we are going to learn how to place events in chronological order on a timeline using both BC and AD dates. As a class, we will create a timeline of the history of food. To get started, go to the food timeline web site below. You will need to research one food from the BC era and one from the AD era. Write the name of the food and the of date its discovery on one side of an index card and a brief summary of what you read about it on the other side. We will use your card to construct a timeline as a class.

http://www.foodtimeline.org/