The Hebrew calendar is around 4000 years older than the current one. Eastern nations usually counted the number of years since the emperor or king was crowned. Ancient Rome counted from the founding of the city. For a lot of societies, a single year was as long a period as needed tracking, so they wouldn’t bother.
For a [comparison,](https://calendars.fandom.com/wiki/Ab_urbe_condita) the Roman year 753 AUC (Ab Urbe Condita) is the 0 year marking the birth of Jesus Christ. AUC refers “From the Founding of the City (of Rome). Consequently, Christian historians in later times marked years as Anno Domini (In the year of our Lord) and BC (Before Christ).
BC / AD shifted to BCE (Before Current Era) and CE (Current Era) for a more neutral approach to year naming starting around the 1970s/80s.
There are a few different calendars, but they basically marked years from some real or possibly mythical event in their group history. With some religious calendars it was something like the beginning of the world. Most common though was the years marked since the establishment of a particular government or something similar.
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