there are two “groups” of years. CE (common era) and BCE (before common era, also known as BC for “before christ”). we are currently in CE. There is no year zero, so 2023 years ago would be 1 BCE, and 2024 years ago would be 2 BCE. BCE years count up as you move into the past, and CE years count up as you move into the future. when you see something referred to as happening in, say, 500 BCE, that is 500 years before the common era, or 2523 years in the past.
Technically speaking I think it would be 4,997,978 BCE, but at that point you’re talking about geologic rather than anthropic timescales so you’d more likely just call it 5 mya (5 million years ago).
there are two “groups” of years. CE (common era) and BCE (before common era, also known as BC for “before christ”). we are currently in CE. There is no year zero, so 2023 years ago would be 1 BCE, and 2024 years ago would be 2 BCE. BCE years count up as you move into the past, and CE years count up as you move into the future. when you see something referred to as happening in, say, 500 BCE, that is 500 years before the common era, or 2523 years in the past.
Would that mean 5 million years ago it would be 5,000,2023 BC or is there some other format for dates that far back?
Technically speaking I think it would be 4,997,978 BCE, but at that point you’re talking about geologic rather than anthropic timescales so you’d more likely just call it 5 mya (5 million years ago).