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TheHolocene calendar, also known as theHolocene Era orHuman Era (HE), is ayear numbering system that adds exactly 10,000 years to the currently dominant (AD/BC orCE/BCE) numbering scheme, placing its first year near the beginning of theHolocenegeological epoch and theNeolithic Revolution, when humans shifted from ahunter-gatherer lifestyle toagriculture and fixed settlements. The current year by the Gregorian calendar, AD 2025, is 12025 HE in the Holocene calendar. The HE scheme was first proposed byCesare Emiliani in 1993 (11993 HE),[1] thoughsimilar proposals to start a new calendar at the same date had been put forward decades earlier.[2][3] Emiliani thereby dismissed his original proposal to align the era with the 7980-yearJulian cycles, i.e. start with theepoch in 4713 BCE (5288 HE).[1]
Cesare Emiliani's proposal for acalendar reform sought to solve a number of alleged problems with the currentAnno Domini era, also called theCommon Era, which numbers the years of the commonly accepted world calendar. These issues include:
Instead, HE uses the "beginning of human era" as itsepoch, arbitrarily defined as 10,000 BC and denoted year 1 HE, so thatAD 1 matches 10,001 HE.[1]This is a rough approximation of the start of the currentgeologic epoch, theHolocene (the name meansentirely recent). The motivation for this is thathuman civilization (e.g. the firstsettlements,agriculture, etc.) is believed to have arisen within this time. Emiliani later proposed that the start of the Holocene should be fixed at the same date as the beginning of his proposed era.[5]
Human Era proponents claim that it makes for easiergeological,archaeological,dendrochronological,anthropological andhistorical dating, as well as that it bases its epoch on an event more universally relevant than the birth ofJesus. All key dates in human history can then be listed using a simple increasing date scale with smaller dates always occurring before larger dates. Another gain is that the Holocene Era starts before the othercalendar eras, so it could be useful for the comparison and conversion of dates from different calendars.
When Emiliani discussed the calendar in a follow-up article in 1994, he mentioned that there was no agreement on the date of the start of the Holocene epoch, with estimates at the time ranging between 12,700 and 10,970 yearsBP.[5] Since then, scientists have improved their understanding of the Holocene on the evidence ofice cores and can now more accurately date its beginning. A consensus view was formally adopted by theIUGS in 2013, placing its start at 11,700 years before 2000 (9701 BC), about 300 years more recent than the epoch of the Holocene calendar.[6]
In 1924Gabriel Deville proposed the use ofCalendrier nouveau de chronologie ancienne (CNCA), which would start 10,000 years before AD 1, which is identical to Emiliani's much later proposal.[2]
Since 1929,Dievturība adherents useLatviskā ēra (the Latvian Era) which begins at the same point; this coincides with the first inhabitants’ influx to the territory of present Latvia (10500–10047 BCE). According to the Latvian Era, 12025 is written for 2025 CE. Detailed explanation of Latvian Era byErnests Brastiņš was first published in 1934.[7][8][9]
In 1963 E.R. Hope proposed the use ofAnterior Epoch (AE), which also begins at the same point.[3]
Conversion fromJulian orGregorian calendar years to the Human Era can be achieved by adding 10,000 to the AD/CE year. The present year, 2025, can be transformed into a Holocene year by adding the digit "1" before it, making it 12,025 HE. Years BC/BCE are converted by subtracting the BC/BCE year number from 10,001.
| Gregorian year | ISO 8601 | Holocene year | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10002 BC | −10001 | −1 HE | |
| 10001 BC | −10000 | 0 HE | |
| 10000 BC | −9999[a] | 1 HE | Beginning of the Holocene Era |
| 9701 BC | −9700 | 300 HE | End of thePleistocene and beginning of theHolocene[6] |
| 4714 BC | −4713 | 5287 HE | Epoch of theJulian day system: Julian day 0 starts atGreenwich noon on January 1, 4713 BC of theproleptic Julian calendar, which is November 24, 4714 BC in theproleptic Gregorian calendar[10]: 10 |
| 3761 BC | −3760 | 6240 HE | Beginning of theAnno Mundi calendar era in theHebrew calendar[10]: 11 |
| 3102 BC | −3101 | 6899 HE | Beginning of theKali Yuga inHindu cosmology[11] |
| 2250 BC | −2249 | 7751 HE | Beginning of theMeghalayan, the current and latest of the three stages in the Holocene.[12][13] |
| 45 BC | −0044 | 9956 HE | Introduction of theJulian calendar |
| 1 BC | 0000 | 10000 HE | Year zero at ISO 8601 |
| 1 AD | 0001 | 10001 HE | Beginning of theCommon Era andAnno Domini, from the estimate byDionysius Exiguus of theIncarnation of Jesus |
| 622 | 0622 | 10622 HE | Migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, starting theIslamic calendar[14][15] at 1AH |
| 1582 | 1582 | 11582 HE | Introduction of theGregorian calendar[10]: 47 |
| 1912 | 1912 | 11912 HE | Epoch of theJuche[16] andRepublic of China calendars[17] |
| 1950 | 1950 | 11950 HE | Epoch of theBefore Present dating scheme[18]: 190 |
| 1960 | 1960 | 11960 HE | UTC Epoch |
| 1970 | 1970 | 11970 HE | Unix Epoch[19] |
| 1993 | 1993 | 11993 HE | Publication of the Holocene calendar |
| 2025 | 2025 | 12025 HE | Current year |
| 10000 | +10000 | 20000 HE |
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