Primary and Secondary Sources in History

• Historians and archaeologists find out about the past using two types of sources: primary and secondary.
• Primary sources are firsthand accounts or objects from the time period being studied, directly created or used by people of the past.
• Examples of primary sources: tools, weapons, buildings, and diaries.
• Secondary sources offer secondhand evidence, created after an event by someone who did not witness it.
• Examples of secondary sources include textbooks and films.
• Types of primary and secondary sources can be written, visual, aural, oral, or tactile.
• Written sources include documents, newspapers, texts, and emails.
• Visual sources include photographs, videos, and paintings.
• Aural sources include sounds of the past.
• Oral sources involve interviews and recordings.
• Tactile sources include artifacts, buildings, monuments, and models.
• Prehistory refers to the time before the development of writing.
• Chronological order means arranging events in the order they occurred.
• An artifact is an object made by people, like axes, spears, coins, phones, clothes and watches.
• A historian is someone who studies history using sources.
• Bias is being one-sided.
• Propaganda involves the selective use of information.
• A fact is something that can be proven with evidence.
• An opinion is what one or more people think.
• Being objective means being unbiased and dealing with facts, without letting opinions interfere.

The Work of an Archaeologist

• An archaeologist studies the past by excavating what has been left behind.
• The area excavated is called a site.
• Sites may be chosen due to obvious features, clues from maps and photographs, or myths.
• Obvious features include ruins of structures
• Myths refer to legends
• Rescue excavation is done before development occurs.

Excavation

• Sites are fenced off from the public and a site map is created with numbered sections.
• Digger excavates topsoil, then careful digging proceeds layer by layer.
• Tools for detail work include trowels, brushes, sieves, and photographic scales.
• Artefacts are recorded, stored and mapped.
• Archaeologists may look for postholes dating human intervention at a site.
• Problems during excavation include weather, time, and legal difficulties.

Dating Objects

• Carbon-14 dating is used on anything that once lived.
• After death, carbon-14 slowly decays, allowing archaeologists to determine age by measuring remaining carbon-14.
• Stratigraphy involves analyzing soil layers.
• The known date of something found in the soil helps estimate the age of other objects found more generally
• Dendrochronology studies tree rings, where each represents one year.
• Analyzing ring patterns helps date wooden items.