diff --git a/scenes/dates.py b/scenes/dates.py
index 4622b82858b6f223859c62de20102afd065c7405..7cbe206ba923e266237547d4c0eb29e1382c629f 100644
--- a/scenes/dates.py
+++ b/scenes/dates.py
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ This module aims to deal with dates
 import datetime
 
 
+MINDATE = datetime.datetime.strptime("1000-01-01", "%Y-%m-%d")
+MAXDATE = datetime.datetime.strptime("3000-01-01", "%Y-%m-%d")
+
+
 def get_timestamp(dt):
     """Converts datetime.datetime into a timestamp (in seconds)
 
diff --git a/scenes/indexation.py b/scenes/indexation.py
index 7ddc8d639cb34e8a36616813f702cc2027ceb9ad..cd0ee5f19e3085df910f71f4df79279be90587c9 100644
--- a/scenes/indexation.py
+++ b/scenes/indexation.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ This module contains stuff for the spatio-temporal indexation of scenes
 """
 import datetime
 import rtree
-from scenes.dates import get_timestamp, any2datetime
+from scenes.dates import get_timestamp, any2datetime, MINDATE, MAXDATE
 from scenes.vector import reproject_ogr_layer, get_bbox_wgs84, ogr_open
 from scenes.spatial import poly_overlap
 
@@ -64,9 +64,9 @@ class Index:
 
         """
         if not date_min:
-            date_min = datetime.datetime.strptime("2000-01-01", "%Y-%m-%d")
+            date_min = MINDATE
         if not date_max:
-            date_max = datetime.datetime.strptime("3000-01-01", "%Y-%m-%d")
+            date_max = MAXDATE
 
         # Use the bounding box from the vector data, or from the specified one
         actual_bbox_wgs84 = vector_or_bbox