A little confusion about centuries

Well, I can finally admit a longstanding misunderstanding which I had; today in my world history class, I heard two separate questions from two different people which confirmed that I’m not the only one who has misunderstood centuries. Having at least two cohorts in totally botching a concept makes me feel at least a little less silly.

By “misunderstanding centuries”, what I mean is misunderstanding the periods of time that a particular century refers to. For the longest time – probably a good 7 or 8 years, from the time I was 12 or 13 up until a few years ago – I thought that, for example, “13th century” referred to the years 1301-1400. It seemed like a logical assumption at the time – the 13th century starts with 1300. The 12th century starts with 1200, the 10th with 1000. Except… when you roll back the clock to the time period of 1AD to 100AD… well, oops. If “the first century” were to be 100-200AD, what would 1-100AD be? The 0th century?

In my defense³³, for a long while, I didn’t study any history earlier than the 8th century (i.e., 793AD, the first recorded Viking raid). I tended to have a pretty narrow field of vision when it came to history, and felt that “that other stuff” didn’t interest me. The more I learn about history, though, the more I find that it all interests me. I don’t recall what it was I was reading when I finally ran into my blunder.

The ultimate question, though? How in the world did I read about medieval history for years, and not pick up on the fact that when an author was writing about, say, the 12th century, that all of the dates were 11-something? I’ve no idea. For that matter, I know I read at one point or another – probably multiple times, in truth! – that the first Viking raid was at the end of the 8th century. Why did it never click? Thick skull, I suppose. Even to this day, I’ll occasionally read “in the such-and-such century”, and have to pause and think – okay, that would mean it ended with that number, not the other way around.

Oh well. My secret’s out now. At least I now know there are at least two other people who have the concept borked up. Any others want to admit to it? 3

1. As much of a defense as I can muster up, anyway. It’s pretty bad for someone who’s majoring in history to admit to this, isn’t it? 333

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