1.2.5 Using historical sources Evidence refers to the facts that indicate whether something is true or really happened. Sources are needed to prove or disprove events from the past. Sources Sources are any written or non-written materials that can be used to investigate and provide information about the past. We can use sources from the time we are studying, and after the time, to explore the different points of view, or perspectives , of people from the past.
Primary and secondary sources Historians can use two types of sources to investigate events from the past.
• Primary sources were created or written in the period that the historian is investigating. • Secondary sources are written or created by people living after the period that the historian is studying. Primary sources might include bones, stone tools, art, photographs or many other traces. Written primary sources can include such things as poems, songs, letters, newspapers, speeches, myths and legends. Secondary sources can include books, articles, websites, models, timelines, computer software and documentary films. To create secondary sources, historians often: • locate information in primary sources • interpret that information • use it to explain what happened.
SOURCE3 The many different types of primary source
Remains of shipwrecks
Remains of buildings
Translations of works of ancient writers
Statues
Maps and diagrams
Preserved body or skeleton
Paintings and carvings in tombs and caves
Photographs and reconstructions
Weapons
History sources
Ancient inscriptions
Mosaics
Graffiti
Coins
What other people have written
Tombs
Pots and cups
Tools
Figurines
TOPIC1 Historical concepts and skills 7
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