Periodization
The Sumerian King List, dating to the second millennium BC—and for most parts it is not considered historically accurate—is "periodized" into dynastic regnal eras.
Some have a cultural usage (the "Gilded Age"), others refer to prominent historical events ('the Interwar period), while others are defined by decimal numbering systems ('the 1960s', 'the 17th century').
Likewise, 'the 1960s', though technically applicable to anywhere in the world according to Common Era numbering, has a certain set of specific cultural connotations in certain countries.
This would mean that the sexual revolution, counterculture, youth rebellion and so on never developed during that decade in Spain's conservative Roman Catholic culture and under Francisco Franco's authoritarian regime.
This was because the cultural and economic conditions that define the meaning of the period covers more than the accidental fact of a 10-year block beginning with the number 6.
This usage derives from other historians who have adopted labels such as "the long 19th century" (1789–1914) to reconcile arbitrary decimal chronology with meaningful cultural and social phases.
The new nomenclature suggests a broader geographical coverage and a growing attention to the relationships between Europe and the wider world.
The term Dark Ages is no longer in common use among modern scholars because of the difficulty of using it neutrally, though some writers have attempted to retain it and divest it of its negative connotations.
The system further underwent subdivisions, including the 1865 partitioning of the Stone Age into Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods by John Lubbock.
[5] Some events or short periods of change have such a drastic effect on the cultures they affect that they form a natural break in history.
These are often marked by the widespread use of both pre- and post- phrases centered on the event, as in pre-Reformation and post-Reformation, or pre-colonial and post-colonial.
Both pre-war and post-war are still understood to refer to World War II, though at some future point the phrases will need to be altered to make that clear.
