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Tags: Time Period Tags

The purpose of tags is to make information relatively easy to find. The purpose of this essay is, firstly, to explain how I’m using the tags for general eras. The second purpose is to provide a tag list that the visitor can use to explore the site. The number of tags used in the project, and the organization into four different categories, doesn’t lend itself to a traditional tag-cloud. I’ll be setting up one of these tag essays for Place and Time Period tags, and probably multiple topic-specific essays for the Event/Person and Misc. tag-sets.

General Eras

There is little usefulness to providing century-by-century tags for information relating to pre-medieval sources, although sometimes a specific date is available. Any topics falling before the beginning of the Common Era (i.e., the year 1) will be tagged only generally. Later material will be grouped by century unless the coverage is broad and general, or no specific date is given. At the time I’m writing this, the Renaissance and Early Modern tags haven’t been used, because a specific date is almost always available for material falling in those periods.

  • Bronze Age: Archaeologically, this era is defined by technology, but consider the tag to indicate roughly 3000-1000 BCE. Generally entries tagged with this will involve art.
  • Classical Era: This tag is used to indicate the eras dominated by Greek and Roman civilization. In regions where those cultures had no influence, consider it to indicate roughly 1000 BCE to the early centuries of the Common Era. If a more specific date in the Common Era is known, that will be used.
  • Post-Roman/Early Medieval: This tag is used when a more specific date isn’t available, covering very roughly the first millennium.
  • Medieval (general): This tag is used when a more specific date isn’t available covering very roughly the 11-14th centuries.
  • Renaissance (general): The Renaissance is defined differently in different countries, and generally a more specific date will be used. Consider this to cover roughly the 15-16th centuries.
  • Early Modern (general): This tag is used when a more specific date isn’t available, but consider it to cover roughly the 17-18th centuries. This tag is unlikely to be used much.

Centuries

Keep in mind that entries aren’t always tagged by time period unless a specific dated document or person is discussed. If you don’t seem to be finding anything in a date range, try searching by place or topic instead.