--- title: BC and AD, dinosaurs and pyramids, and timelines — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «BC and AD, dinosaurs and pyramids, and timelines», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Our year numbers count from a starting point that a monk worked out about 1,500 years ago. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / BC and AD, dinosaurs and pyramids, and… # BC and AD, dinosaurs and pyramids, and timelines Lesson 125 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 26 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/0/) — Our year numbers count from a starting point that a monk worked out about 1,500 years ago. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/1/) — Years after it are AD ("Anno Domini", Latin for "in the year of the Lord"), also written CE; years before it are BC ("before Christ"), also written BCE. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/2/) — BC years count down towards the start like a rocket countdown, and AD years count up. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/3/) — There is no year 0: 1 BC is followed straight by AD 1. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/4/) — So to find the gap from a BC year to an AD year, add the two numbers and take away 1. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/5/) — Julius Caesar was killed in 44 BC, which is 44 + 2026 − 1 = 2,069 years before 2026. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/6/) — Deep time plays tricks. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/7/) — The Great Pyramid, finished about 2560 BC, is about 4,500 years old; Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first Moon landing than to its building, and the last woolly mammoths were still alive on Wrangel Island, in the Arctic, after it was built. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/8/) — T. rex lived closer in time to us than to Stegosaurus, and no human ever met a dinosaur, apart from the birds, which are dinosaurs' living relatives. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/9/) — A timeline puts events in order on a line with a scale. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/10/) — Squash Earth's 4.5 billion years into one day of 24 hours, and the dinosaurs die out about 21 minutes before midnight, while humans arrive only about 6 seconds before. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/11/) — Some old dates are traditions rather than measurements, like Kyiv's founding in AD 482, and big claims, like aliens building Stonehenge, need evidence: archaeologists have found the tools, homes and bones of the people who really built it. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/13/) — There is no year 0: 1 BC is followed directly by AD 1. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/14/) — To find how many years lie between a BC year and an AD year, add the two numbers and take away 1. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/15/) — 500 BC and AD 500 are 999 years apart, and 10 BC and AD 10 are 19 years apart. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/16/) — Julius Caesar was killed in 44 BC, 2,069 years before 2026. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/17/) — The Great Pyramid of Giza was finished about 2560 BC, about 4,500 years ago. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/18/) — Non-bird dinosaurs died out about 66 million years ago; humans appeared only about 300,000 years ago, so no human ever saw one. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/19/) — Birds are the living relatives of the dinosaurs. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/20/) — Stegosaurus lived about 150 million years ago and T. rex about 68 to 66 million years ago, so T. rex lived closer in time to us than to Stegosaurus. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/21/) — The last woolly mammoths, on Wrangel Island in the Arctic, died out about 4,000 years ago, after the Great Pyramid was built. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/22/) — On a timeline of Earth's 4.5 billion years squashed into 24 hours, humans appear only about 6 seconds before midnight. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/23/) — Kyiv's traditional founding date is AD 482, which makes it 1,544 years old in 2026; the date comes from old stories. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/24/) — On a 1-metre timeline of the last 2,000 years, each centimetre stands for 20 years. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/25/) — Stonehenge was built and rebuilt by people from about 3000 BC to about 1500 BC, using ropes, wood and picks made of deer antler. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/125-bc-ad-dinosaurs-pyramids-timelines/26/) — Cleopatra lived about 2,000 years ago, dying in 30 BC, so in her time the Great Pyramid was already about 2,500 years old. - ← previous: [Decades, centuries and millennia](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/124-decades-centuries-millennia/) - next →: ["In the olden days": Grandad's 1990](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/126-in-the-olden-days/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)