"Although the okapi was unknown to the Western world until the 20th century, it may have been depicted since the early fifth century BCE on the façade of the Apadana at Persepolis, a gift from the Ethiopian procession to the Achaemenid kingdom.
For years, Europeans in Africa had heard of an animal that they came to call the African unicorn."
Seems to suggest that though elusive, it was pretty well know in the region.
BCE is the standard for all scholarly material. It would be great to have a completely neutral term, at best we have to settle for a de-Christianized one.
I learned about it in This episode of The Rest is Science with Hannah fry and Michael Stevens from Vsauce, if you wanna learn cool stuff about our calendars…
Still fundamentally linked to the estimate of Christ’s birth by Dionysius Exiguus, just with an added +10000. To fully unlink that you’d have to find a date that far back that you’re sure about and the farther back you go the harder that is.
From the Wikipedia article:
"Although the okapi was unknown to the Western world until the 20th century, it may have been depicted since the early fifth century BCE on the façade of the Apadana at Persepolis, a gift from the Ethiopian procession to the Achaemenid kingdom.
For years, Europeans in Africa had heard of an animal that they came to call the African unicorn."
Seems to suggest that though elusive, it was pretty well know in the region.
Thanks for making me learn stuff.
I’m an atheist, but BCE instead of BC is kinda cringe, ngl.
BCE is the standard for all scholarly material. It would be great to have a completely neutral term, at best we have to settle for a de-Christianized one.
Let’s just all use the Holocene calendar.
I learned about it in This episode of The Rest is Science with Hannah fry and Michael Stevens from Vsauce, if you wanna learn cool stuff about our calendars…
Still fundamentally linked to the estimate of Christ’s birth by Dionysius Exiguus, just with an added +10000. To fully unlink that you’d have to find a date that far back that you’re sure about and the farther back you go the harder that is.
Right. But atleast we’d be done with the BCEs.
You’re making me wonder what event (that we can precisely date) was/will be important enough worldwide for it to be used as year zero?