We use MimsyXG and there we store both a text date field (e.g. "2nd century BC", "Early Medieval", "1st January 1836") we also store an earliest and latest year value. So for the examples above you get:
Earliest -0200 Latest -0101
Earliest 0401 Latest -1066
Earliest 1836 Latest 1836
These allow a certain amount of quick sorting. It also means that we can do a search for everything that might be eighteenth century by looking for
Earliest year <= 1800 and Latest year >= 1701
We haven't got our collections on-line yet but I'm hoping that when we do we will be able to do something that does this sort of search behind the scenes. However I would want to display -0200 as 200BC.
NB using a - sign for BC dates is part of the ISO standard for representing dates.
Trevor Reynolds, Registrar
English Heritage, 37 Tanner Row, York, YO1 6WP
+44 (0) 1904 601905
________________________________________
From: Museums Computer Group [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Benfield [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 02 October 2009 10:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: BC dates [Scanned]
> 15/03/0057
I am curious to know how many BC objects have a known day and month?
John Benfield
Head of Digital Media
The Royal Shakespeare Company
01789 272351
07825 397387 mob
P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
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