In chronology, an era is the highest level for the organization of the measurement of time. A calendar era span of many years which are numbered beginning at a specific epoch, which often marks the origin of a state or cosmology, the birth of a leader, or another significant historical or mythological event; it can be called after either accordingly.
The word era also denotes the units used under a different, more arbitrary system where time is not represented as an endless continuum with a single reference year, but each unit starts counting from one again, as if time starts again. Such rather impractical system — a nightmare for historians once a single piece of the puzzle is missing — is the use of regnal years, which often reflects the preponderance in public life of the absolute ruler in many ancient cultures, while such tradition sometimes outlives the political power of the throne. In East Asia, each emperor's reign may be subdivided into several reign periods, each being treated as a new era. The name of each was a motto or slogan chosen by the emperor. Different East Asian countries utilized slightly different systems, notably:
Chinese Eras
Japanese Eras
Korean Eras
Vietnamese Eras
A similar practice survived in the United Kingdom until quite recently, but only for formal official writings: in daily life the ordinary year A.D. was used since long, but Acts of Parliament used to be dated according to the years of the reign of the current Monarch, so that "61 & 62 Vict c. 37" refers to the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 passed in the session of Parliament in the 61st/62nd year of the reign of Queen Victoria.
In common speech and various contexts, the term era is also used, by extension, for any (as a rule relatively long) period in history with a name, often relating to common characteristic(s), even if this is not the normal way to organize time. The most relevant type are politic periods, for example: the Roman era, the Elizabethan era, the Victorian era (dynastic criteria, only formally correct within the British realm/empire/Commonwealth) and the Soviet era, or comparable literary notions like the Biblical era.
The word Era is also popularly used to denote the passing of — often shorter — periods that are only defined in terms of a specific discipline of sphere of life, such as the prominence of an artistic style, or more specificly in music, see musical eras, described in History of music, such as the Big Band era, Disco era. Something like the death of Frank Sinatra is poetically called the end of an era.
In natural science, there is need for another time perspective, independent from human activity, and indeed spanning a far longer period (mainly prehistoric), as in Geology where era refers to four well defined time spans covering the enire existence of the planet Earth: from oldest to youngest, these are the Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras, each subdivided in shorter periods; see Geologic timescale for a slightly different interpretation and details.
In astronomy the periods are even longer, to cover the entire existence of the universe (in the order of 13.7 billion years), but usually just denoted in numerical units, as there is no significant link to any earthly reality, our planet being astronomically insignificant (except as the only known observation point).
2006-09-02 01:37:39
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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I guess you're asking how long is an era. An era has no definite time length. An era is merely a word used to define some indefinite span of time that's best defined by some event, technology, philosophy, dominate living organism, etc.,. For instance, there's the era of the dinosaurs, the atomic era, the christian era, etc.,. Many times you'll find the word "age" used in place of era.
2006-09-02 07:56:18
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answer #2
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answered by Chug-a-Lug 7
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My Oxford Chambers dictionary defines and era as:-
A series of years reckoned from a particular point or that point itself: a main division of geological time, subdivided into periods. (Latin aera, a number, originally counters, pieces of copper used in counting).
Therefore an era is as long as any of those things. It's often said that when someone dies 'It's the end of an era.'
2006-09-02 07:59:05
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answer #3
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answered by quatt47 7
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I don't think it is defined by a definative time period.
From dictionary.com: an era is a period of time marked by distinctive character, events
2006-09-02 07:53:45
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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