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Period timeline

When entering dates on the database in the Date From and Date To boxes, you must use calendar dates (you cannot enter 13th century, etc). To produce a BC date, you must prefix the number with a hyphen (so making it a minus number). Spaces, commas and letters will be stripped out automatically.

These are the agreed date-ranges for the broad periods, following English Heritage's chronology:

Palaeolithic, 500,000 BC-10,001 BC

  • Lower (use Early): 500,000 - 150,001 BC
  • Middle: 150,000 - 40,001 BC
  • Upper (use Late): 40,000 - 10,001 BC

Mesolithic, 10,000 BC-4001 BC

  • Early: 10,000 - 7001 BC
  • Late: 7000 - 4001 BC

Neolithic, 4000 BC-2351 BC

  • Early: 4000 - 3501 BC
  • Middle: 3500 - 2701 BC
  • Late: 2700 - 2351 BC

Bronze Age, 2350 BC-801 BC

  • Early: 2350 - 1601 BC
  • Middle: 1600 - 1001 BC
  • Late: 1000 - 801 BC

Iron Age, 800 BC-42 AD

  • Early: 800 - 401 BC
  • Middle: 400 - 101 BC
  • Late: 100 BC - AD 42

Roman, 43AD-409AD

  • Early, 43 - 200 AD
  • Late, 201 - 409 AD

Early medieval, 410 AD-1066 AD

  • Early, 410 - 700 AD
  • Middle, 701 - 849 AD
  • Late, 850 - 1066 AD

Medieval, 1066 AD-1539 AD

  • 1066 - 1539 AD

Post Medieval, 1540 AD-1900 AD

  • 1540 - 1900 AD

Modern, 1901 AD-present

  • 1901 AD- present

You do not have to use these calendar years precisely as expressed above. Use the calendar years that you think apply to the object itself, not the calendar years of the period. Select the Broad Period, Period From and Period To as appropriate after thinking about the correct calendar years for the object. An object's date-range is unlikely to start precisely in 1066 AD, for example.

Greek and Roman Provincial, 700 BC-297 AD

When this broad period is used, the database will automatically map it onto either Iron Age (for the earlier coins) or Roman (for the later coins) depending on the precise years entered.

Byzantine, 491 AD-1453 AD

When this broad period is used, the database will automatically map it onto either early-medieval (for the earlier coins) or medieval (for the later coins) depending on the precise years entered.