Before Present (BP) years, or years before present is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred before the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s.

What does BP mean in dates?

before present Dates can be expressed as AD, BC, BCE (before common era), and BP (before present). The accepted way to represent C-14 ages is in terms of years BP, where the year 1950 is used as the present. (1950 is the date that the calibration curves were established.

Is BC the same as BP?

B.P. (Before the Present) is the number of years before the present. Because the present changes every year, archaeologists, by convention, use A.D. 1950 as their reference. So, 2000 B.P. is the equivalent of 50 B.C.