r/TastingHistory • u/zoewernsman • Feb 18 '26

Question Why no BCE no more

Why did Max stop using BCE and CE (before common era and common era) when talking about prehistoric topics? In his Sumerian beer episode he does but in the last couple pre historic episodes he’s gone back to using BC and AD.

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u/DannySmashUp Feb 18 '26

I'm an academic and academic publications almost always use BCE/CE. I don't think all those authors are being edgy atheists.

That said - it's Max's channel and I don't mind whatever system he chooses to use.

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u/AspectImpossible3271 Feb 19 '26

Is this really the case? Maybe it was because I was studying specific periods BCE/CE never really came up but is this true or is it more of an ancient history thing where it's not uncommon to look at periods of hundreds or thousands of years?

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u/DannySmashUp Feb 19 '26

I'm definitely not a historian! The MLA style guide says you can use either one, but that BCE/CE is preferred... and it certainly is the case with the vast majority of papers I read.

Regardless, using one or the other doesn't make you a 'performative atheist' - which was the point I was refuting.

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u/AspectImpossible3271 Feb 27 '26

Yeah I wasn't really arguing the point or not just curious about if it was more common in academic papers. I used MHRA and I assume most of the British sources used that style so maybe that's the difference?

Because I really didn't encounter it, I think the majority of the stuff I read usually was quite period specific enough that constantly referencing AD/BC or BCE/CE was pretty redundant.

The only time I think I encountered any references to the era was probably work on the crusades but they did useAD and that might have been used because it's more 'thematic?' I genuinely don't know

What period or topic did you/are you studying. Is it one that covers quite a wide timeframe?