Holocene calendar

The Holocene calendar, or Human era (HE), is a year numbering system that adds 10,000 years to the present Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE) system. It puts the first year near the beginning of the Holocene epoch and the Neolithic revolution. Those who favour the HE system say that it makes for easier geological, archeological, dendrochronological and historical dating.

For example, the year 2022 can be made into a Holocene year by adding the number "1" before it, making it 12022 HE. The calendar was introduced by the scientist Cesare Emiliani in 1993 (11993 HE).^[1][2][3]

Arguments supporting the Holocene calendar include:

• In the Anno Domini system the birth of Jesus represents the year 1. People now think Jesus was born four years earlier.
• The years BC are counted down when moving from past to future, making it more difficult to calculate timespans across this divide.
• The Anno Domini system has no year zero, with 1 BC followed by year 1. It is important to not forget this when calculating lengths of time.

The HE starts at 10001 BC. This is a rough approximation of the start of the current geologic epoch, the Holocene or Recent period. Human settlements, first cities and agriculture probably started in this period. All important dates in human history can then be listed using a simple increasing date scale with smaller dates always before larger dates.

1. ↑ Cesare Emiliani, "Calendar Reform", Nature 366 (1993) 716.
2. ↑ The Holocene Calendar at Meerkat Meade.
3. ↑ Harry Weseman. "Human Era Calendar". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-03-02.