3 ms·

BP (when properly explained) emphasizes that the important aspect of the timeline is its relativity to the current time.

• mLuby 5y ago
  So it saves 2 characters compared to ###y ago but requires an explanation. 2500 BP 2500y ago
  • ysavir 5y ago
    Agreed, I was explaining a contrast to using BC/BCE.
  • rjknight 5y ago
    "ya" is an equally short abbreviation for "years ago".
    • mLuby 5y ago
      I've never see that before so I'd have to look it up just like BP.
• beaconstudios 5y ago
  I can see why it makes sense in archaeology, but using it here without any explanation just led to confusion. Everybody knows BC/AD (or BCE/CE if you're wanting to be cross cultural) so using it is just poor communication in this case.
  • gowld 5y ago
    It's trivial to Google and then we are part of today's 10,000.
    • beaconstudios 5y ago
      Yes we can easily Google "BP".
• dragonwriter 5y ago
  BP conventionally being relative to an epoch date of 1 Jan 1950, which is at an ever increasing distance from the actual present, is something of an issue (and while “before actual present” is useful, using BP for it, given the conventional use, is problematic.) "ya" (years ago) as a suffix is better, in that it doesn't have a conventional use with a particular epoch date.