Question about the passage Of time??

I have a question. Back in the BC era the years are counted back wards till we get to the AD era.

Did the ancient people really count their years back wards or did we in present time just rewrite history and dates their way for what ever reason?

Also when will it happen again?

Will we come to the year 9999 AD and decide to start the count over again at 1 BD (or what ever abbreviation they want to use to describe the changeover of time) ?

And who decides when to do all this?

[edit on 13-7-2005 by bpletcj]

Our current way of counting the years is only 500 to 600 years old.

And maybe it is time to change again? At the year 2000 I decided to stop using 2000 and called it year 0. Alot easier! Wich means we now are at year 5. I work in post office and if you ever get something dated like dd/mm-y or like 3/3-5 you know it passed my hands...

We could call this 'nt' or 'normal time'. Anyone else interested in changing to this way? It's like the AD only we don't have to say 'two thousand and' before the year.

The way to count the years is very differently and as ghaele say it's only ca. 600 years old (our current way).

The Islam cultures count sometimes from the moment on which Mohammed fled to Medina.
The Jews count from the writing of the 10 (don't know this word in english) of Mozes.
And Mayans, well, they count(ed) even more different don't know who, has something to do with the sun.

It's interesting to find out how they counted their years in the past ...

sorry, dubble post

[edit on 14/7/2005 by frges]

So your saying 2000 years form now our desendants may refer to 2005AD as 5AD and2005 in there time?

Numbering years is done in whatever way the culture that is most common likes it. So, for example, if the only faith from this time that survives 2000 years is the Mormon faith, then they might start numbering from the year of their founder's birth or his death or some other date significant to them.

Another culture might start the dates from the founding date of their country (as Rome did.)

The planet itself doesn't know or care what we do about dates.

Good point Byrd you usually have a way of putting things into perspective. I guess that why you are a Super Mod instead of a normal Mod.

Thanks to everyone else as well. Thats what I love about this place so many different ideas and perspectives on every subject posed that in the end I know I am gathering more and more knowledge every day.