Years with an era

Archaeologists, geologists, and other palaeoscientists use different systems for numbering years in the distant past. For example, the year 10,000 BCE is 11,950 Before Present or 11.95 ka. It is usually fine to store years as a plain numeric vector in R, but sometimes it helps to be explicit about which system is being used:

The era package helps in these cases by providing classes which define the ‘era’ associated with a vector of years and functions for formatting, combining, and transforming years with different eras. This vignette is an introduction to the main features of the package.

library("era")
library("tibble")
library("dplyr")

Years with an era

Vectors of years with an era are represented by the yr (era_yr) class, which is constructed with yr():

yr(c(10000, 11000, 12000), "BP")
#> # BP years <yr[3]>:
#> [1] 10000 11000 12000
#> # Era: Before Present (BP): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

The first argument is a numeric vector of years. These can be integers or doubles.

The second argument, era, defines the numbering system associated with the years. This is an object of class era which defines the parameters of the calendar, epoch and time scale. Most of the time, you can simply specify the abbreviated label of the era, which will be looked up in the standard eras defined by eras():

yr(c(10000, 11000, 12000), "BCE")
#> # BCE years <yr[3]>:
#> [1] 10000 11000 12000
#> # Era: Before Common Era (BCE): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1
yr(c(10000, 11000, 12000), "uncal BP")
#> # uncal BP years <yr[3]>:
#> [1] 10000 11000 12000
#> # Era: uncalibrated Before Present (uncal BP): radiocarbon years (NA days), counted backwards from 1950
yr(c(10000, 11000, 12000), "ka")
#> # ka years <yr[3]>:
#> [1] 10000 11000 12000
#> # Era: kiloannum (ka): 1000 Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

yr_era() returns details of the era associated with a yr vector:

neolithic <- yr(11700:7500, "BP")
yr_era(neolithic)
#> <era[1]>
#> [1] Before Present (BP): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

yr_era(), and its pipe-friendly alias yr_set_era(), can also be used to set the era of an existing object:

chalcolithic <- 7500:6000
yr_era(chalcolithic) <- yr_era(neolithic)
yr_era(chalcolithic)
#> <era[1]>
#> [1] Before Present (BP): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

Note that this only updates the vector’s era attribute; it doesn’t change the data itself. To convert years from one era to another, you need to use the yr_transform() function.

yr vectors fit nicely into tables, both base data frames and tibbles:

postglacial <- tribble(
  ~period,           ~start_ka,
  "Late Holocene",   4.2,
  "Mid Holocene",    8.326,
  "Early Holocene",  11.7,
  "Younger Dryas",   12.9,
  "Bølling-Allerød", 14.7,
  "Heinrich 1",      17.0
)

postglacial |> 
  mutate(start_ka = yr(start_ka, "ka"))
#> # A tibble: 6 × 2
#>   period          start_ka
#>   <chr>               <yr>
#> 1 Late Holocene     4.2 ka
#> 2 Mid Holocene    8.326 ka
#> 3 Early Holocene   11.7 ka
#> 4 Younger Dryas    12.9 ka
#> 5 Bølling-Allerød  14.7 ka
#> 6 Heinrich 1         17 ka

Era definitions

era includes built-in definitions of many time scales and year numbering systems from contemporary and historic calendars. eras() returns the full list of built-in definitions. You can use any definition in this list by passing its abbreviated label to era() or as the era argument of yr() or any other function in the package:

era("BP")
#> <era[1]>
#> [1] Before Present (BP): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

yr(10000, "BP")
#> # BP years <yr[1]>:
#> [1] 10000
#> # Era: Before Present (BP): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

yr_transform(yr(10000, "BP"), "BCE")
#> # BCE years <yr[1]>:
#> [1] 8051
#> # Era: Before Common Era (BCE): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1

If you need to use a time scale that is not in this list, you can define it yourself with era(). Suggestions for new eras to include in the package are also welcome; please create an issue on GitHub with suggestions.

List of built-in eras

label epoch name unit scale direction this_year
BP 1950.0000 Before Present Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 -1 -72
cal BP 1950.0000 Before Present Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 -1 -72
BC 1.0000 Before Christ Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 -1 -2021
BCE 1.0000 Before Common Era Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 -1 -2021
AD 0.0000 Anno Domini Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 1 2022
CE 0.0000 Common Era Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 1 2022
a 1950.0000 annum Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 -1 -72
ka 1950.0000 kiloannum Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+03 -1 0
Ma 1950.0000 megaannum Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+06 -1 0
Ga 1950.0000 gigaannum Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+09 -1 0
kya 1950.0000 thousand years ago Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+03 -1 0
mya 1950.0000 million years ago Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+06 -1 0
bya 1950.0000 billion years ago Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+09 -1 0
b2k 2000.0000 years before 2000 Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 -1 -22
uncal BP 1950.0000 uncalibrated Before Present radiocarbon years (NA days) 1e+00 -1 NA
RCYBP 1950.0000 Radiocarbon Years Before Present radiocarbon years (NA days) 1e+00 -1 NA
bp 1950.0000 Before Present (uncalibrated) radiocarbon years (NA days) 1e+00 -1 NA
bc 1950.0000 Before Christ (uncalibrated) radiocarbon years (NA days) 1e+00 -1 NA
bce 1950.0000 Before Common Era (uncalibrated) radiocarbon years (NA days) 1e+00 -1 NA
ad 1950.0000 Anno Domini (uncalibrated) radiocarbon years (NA days) 1e+00 1 NA
ce 1950.0000 Common Era (uncalibrated) radiocarbon years (NA days) 1e+00 1 NA
AD O.S. 0.0000 Anno Domini (Old Style) Julian years (365.25 days) 1e+00 1 2022
BC O.S. 1.0000 Before Christ (New Style) Julian years (365.25 days) 1e+00 1 2021
H 621.5366 Hijra Islamic lunar years (354.36708 days) 1e+00 1 1444
AH 621.5366 Anno Hegirae Islamic lunar years (354.36708 days) 1e+00 1 1444
BH 622.5366 Before the Hijra Islamic lunar years (354.36708 days) 1e+00 -1 -1443
SH 621.2190 Solar Hijri Nowruz years (365.2424 days) 1e+00 1 1401
BSH 622.2190 Before Solar Hijri Nowruz years (365.2424 days) 1e+00 -1 -1400
AM -3760.2361 Anno Mundi Hebrew lunisolar years (365.246822205978 days) 1e+00 1 5783
HE -10000.0000 Holocene Era Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 1 12022
BHE -10000.0000 Before Holocene Era Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 -1 -12022
AL -4000.0000 Anno Lucis Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 1 6022
ADA -8000.0000 After the Development of Agriculture Gregorian years (365.2425 days) 1e+00 1 10022

Defining other eras

Eras are defined by the era class with the following parameters:

These parameters are passed to era() to construct an era object. epoch, unit, scale, and direction determine the transformation between eras; label and name are purely descriptive.

You can define arbitrary eras by using the era() function directly:

era("T.A.", epoch = -9021, name = "Third Age", direction = 1)
#> <era[1]>
#> [1] Third Age (T.A.): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted forwards from -9021

As long as all the parameters are specified correctly, user-defined eras can also be used in yr_transform().

Converting between eras: yr_transform()

Use yr_transform() to convert between eras:

postglacial |> 
  mutate(start_ka = yr(start_ka, "ka")) |> 
  mutate(start_bp = yr_transform(start_ka, era("BP")),
         start_bce = yr_transform(start_ka, era("BCE")))
#> # A tibble: 6 × 4
#>   period          start_ka start_bp start_bce
#>   <chr>               <yr>     <yr>      <yr>
#> 1 Late Holocene     4.2 ka  4200 BP  2251 BCE
#> 2 Mid Holocene    8.326 ka  8326 BP  6377 BCE
#> 3 Early Holocene   11.7 ka 11700 BP  9751 BCE
#> 4 Younger Dryas    12.9 ka 12900 BP 10951 BCE
#> 5 Bølling-Allerød  14.7 ka 14700 BP 12751 BCE
#> 6 Heinrich 1         17 ka 17000 BP 15051 BCE

This function implements a generic algorithm for transforming years based on the era parameters described above. This means that, with a few exceptions (see invalid transformations, you can transform between any two eras that can be described by the era class.

Transformation precision

By default, era transformations are exact:

yr(500000, "BCE") |> 
  yr_transform(era("ka"))
#> # ka years <yr[1]>:
#> [1] 501.949
#> # Era: kiloannum (ka): 1000 Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

Often, this precision is not necessary. For example, when converting years between calendar- and present-based eras, the 72 year difference between the formal definition of “Present” and the actual present is rarely significant on a geologic time scale. Use the precision argument of yr_transform to get rounded results:

yr(10000, "BP") |> 
  yr_transform(era("BCE"), precision = 1000)
#> # BCE years <yr[1]>:
#> [1] 8000
#> # Era: Before Common Era (BCE): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1

yr(500000, "BCE") |> 
  yr_transform(era("mya"), precision = 0.1)
#> # mya years <yr[1]>:
#> [1] 0.5
#> # Era: million years ago (mya): 1000000 Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

Invalid transformations

Some transformations are not possible. Notably, the length of a ‘radiocarbon year’ is not well defined on a calendar time scale without calibration. Eras that use non-calendar year unit are represented with an NA and will cause an error if passed to yr_transform():

era_unit(era("uncal BP"))
#> <era_year[1]>
#> [1] radiocarbon years (NA days)
yr_transform(yr(9000, "uncal BP"), era("cal BP"))
#> Error in `yr_transform()`:
#> ! Cannot transform uncalibrated Before Present to Before Present years:
#> ✖ Calendar length of a radiocarbon year is undefined.

c14_calibrate() from the stratigraphr package implements radiocarbon calibration with yr objects.

Conversion between eras that both have an NA unit are also an error, following the R convention that NA == NA is NA. In other words, we don’t know whether two non-calendar units are the same non-calendar unit. This means that it is not possible to use yr_transform() to convert bp (radiocarbon years Before Present) to bce (radiocarbon years before the Common Era) years, for example.

Arithmetic with year vectors

The yr class is based on vctrs, ensuring type- and size-stable computations. For example, you can do arithmetic with year vectors:

a <- yr(1500, "CE")
b <- yr(2020, "CE")
b - a
#> # CE years <yr[1]>:
#> [1] 520
#> # Era: Common Era (CE): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted forwards from 0

But only when they have the same era:

c <- yr(0.5, "ka")
b - c
#> Error in `vec_cast.era_yr.era_yr()`:
#> ! Can't convert `y` <yr (ka)> to <yr (CE)>.
#> Reconcile eras with yr_transform() first.

Note that, when comparing eras, only the parameters significant to the transformation are considered (i.e. not label or name). This means that it is possible to combine year vectors with differently-named but functionally equivalent eras, for example era("BP") and era("cal BP"), although doing so will print a warning about the loss of information:

era("BP") == era("BC")
#> [1] FALSE
era("BP") == era("cal BP")
#> [1] TRUE

yr(1000, "BP") + yr(1000, "cal BP")
#> Warning: eras have different label or name parameters.
#> # BP years <yr[1]>:
#> [1] 2000
#> # Era: Before Present (BP): Gregorian years (365.2425 days), counted backwards from 1950

Years will be coerced to a plain numeric vector if a computation means their era no longer makes sense:

a * b
#> [1] 3030000