Pickled in brine

As another numbered year clicks into place and we all try to get used to it being 2018, it's salutary to be reminded how recent is the idea of time and dates, whether AD or BC, BCE or BP.
Here on Abermawr beach the lowest tides  reveal the waterlogged roots of trees that grew here between 6 and 8000 years ago, according Carbon14 dating. The wood is polished smooth by the waves and feels almost velvety; it looks lumpy like chocolate fudge or sinewy like the splayed limbs of long-buried bog bodies.
 Another year, or a hundred, will make no difference to it.