Add BCE temporal tags to all documents; add temporal-dating steering doc

writing-systems/cuneiform.md

@@ -4,18 +4,18 @@
 # Cuneiform
 
 ## Overview
-Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system, developed in Sumer ~3400 BCE. Written by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay tablets, it was used for over 3,000 years across multiple languages and civilizations.
+Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system, developed in Sumer ~3400 BCE. Written by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay tablets, it was used for over 3,000 years across multiple languages and civilizations. @t[~3400 BCE]
 
 ## Key Facts
-- Origin: Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, ~3400 BCE
+- Origin: Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, ~3400 BCE @t[~3400 BCE]
 - Medium: Clay tablets impressed with a wedge-shaped reed stylus
 - Name: From Latin *cuneus* ("wedge")
 - Languages written: Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Elamite, Urartian, Old Persian
 - Deciphered by: Henry Rawlinson, Edward Hincks, and others (~1840s–1850s) via the Behistun Inscription [^1]
 
 ## Development
-- Began as pictographic/logographic system for accounting (~3400 BCE)
-- Evolved into syllabic writing by ~2600 BCE
+- Began as pictographic/logographic system for accounting (~3400 BCE) @t[~3400 BCE]
+- Evolved into syllabic writing by ~2600 BCE @t[~2600 BCE]
 - ~600–1,000 signs in use at various periods
 - Last known cuneiform tablet: 75 CE (astronomical text from Babylon) [^2]
 

writing-systems/egyptian-hieroglyphics.md

@@ -7,20 +7,20 @@
 Egyptian hieroglyphics were the formal writing system of ancient Egypt, used for ~3,500 years on monuments, temples, and tombs. Deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822 using the Rosetta Stone.
 
 ## Key Facts
-- Origin: ~3200 BCE (earliest examples from Abydos)
-- Period of use: ~3200 BCE – ~400 CE
+- Origin: ~3200 BCE (earliest examples from Abydos) @t[~3200 BCE]
+- Period of use: ~3200 BCE – ~400 CE @t[3200 BCE..400]
 - Number of signs: ~700 in classical usage (expanded to ~5,000 in Ptolemaic period)
 - Deciphered by: Jean-François Champollion (1822) using the Rosetta Stone [^1]
 
 ## System
 - Combination of logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements
 - Written left-to-right, right-to-left, or top-to-bottom (direction indicated by which way figures face)
-- Hieratic: Cursive form for everyday use (~2600 BCE onward)
-- Demotic: Later cursive form (~650 BCE onward)
+- Hieratic: Cursive form for everyday use (~2600 BCE onward) @t[~2600 BCE]
+- Demotic: Later cursive form (~650 BCE onward) @t[~650 BCE]
 
 ## Key Artifacts
-- Rosetta Stone (196 BCE): Trilingual decree (hieroglyphic, Demotic, Greek) that enabled decipherment [^2]
-- Narmer Palette (~3100 BCE): Among the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions
+- Rosetta Stone (196 BCE): Trilingual decree (hieroglyphic, Demotic, Greek) that enabled decipherment @t[=196 BCE] [^2]
+- Narmer Palette (~3100 BCE): Among the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions @t[~3100 BCE]
 - Book of the Dead: Funerary texts with hieroglyphic illustrations
 
 ---

writing-systems/phoenician-alphabet.md

@@ -4,17 +4,17 @@
 # Phoenician Alphabet
 
 ## Overview
-The Phoenician alphabet (~1050 BCE) was the first widely-used phonetic alphabet, consisting of 22 consonant letters. It is the ancestor of virtually all modern alphabets including Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew.
+The Phoenician alphabet (~1050 BCE) was the first widely-used phonetic alphabet, consisting of 22 consonant letters. It is the ancestor of virtually all modern alphabets including Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew. @t[~1050 BCE]
 
 ## Key Facts
-- Origin: Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), ~1050 BCE
+- Origin: Phoenicia (modern Lebanon), ~1050 BCE @t[~1050 BCE]
 - Type: Abjad (consonantal alphabet, no vowels)
 - Number of letters: 22
 - Direction: Right to left
-- Derived from: Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite script (~1800 BCE) [^1]
+- Derived from: Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite script (~1800 BCE) @t[~1800 BCE] [^1]
 
 ## Descendants
-- Greek alphabet (~800 BCE): Added vowels, adapted letter forms
+- Greek alphabet (~800 BCE): Added vowels, adapted letter forms @t[~800 BCE]
 - Aramaic alphabet: Ancestor of Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and many Asian scripts
 - Latin alphabet (via Greek and Etruscan): Used by most of the modern world
 - South Arabian script: Ancestor of Ethiopic (Ge'ez) [^2]