Reading the Past
The sources of history
Say what counts as a source of history, group the four kinds the chapter names, tell apart the specialists who study the past, and follow what a historian does when two sources disagree.
History is the study of the human past. Nobody alive saw that past, so everything we know about it has to come from something left over: a place, a person, a text or an object from which we gather information about a past event or period. That is what a source of history means. An object or a structure tells a story and is like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle — and in the case of history, quite a few pieces may remain missing.
Four kinds of source
The chapter groups the main sources under four headings. Archaeological sources are things dug out of the ground, like a monument. Literary sources are things people wrote, like a poem. Oral sources are things carried by word of mouth, like folklore. Artistic sources are things people made to be looked at, like a painting.
Have a play
Four people who each study the past in a different way, and what each of them works on.
Tap any part of the picture.
Worked example
Two sources describe the same king. One is a stone inscription he had carved; the other is a travelogue written by a visitor from abroad. They disagree about how big his kingdom was. What does a historian do?
First, gather more. Look for coins, other inscriptions, another traveller's account.
The chapter's rule is to gather information from as many sources as can be found and consulted, before weighing any of them.
Try it together
Now work out which specialist would be called in.
A field is being dug for a new road. The diggers hit a layer of broken pots, and below that a bone with the shape of a leaf pressed into the rock beside it.
1.The broken pots were made and used by people, and were left behind in the ground. Which specialist studies remains like these? Give the name of the specialist.
Have a go
Your turn: a researcher spends a year living in a village, learning how the families there are related and what customs they keep. Which specialist is that?
Hint: Their subject is human societies and cultures, from the oldest times right up to the present.
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.