When studying history, the further back you look, the harder it gets to discover what really was happening. The reason for this is that there are fewer sources of reliable information available, and they can also be very hard to find. Written records go back many thousands of years, the Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian civilisations had writing. These languages no longer exist so translating what was written was no easy task. Ancient Egyptians used a system of heiroglyphs (little pictures) to write things down. Translating these had been impossible until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.... Show more When studying history, the further back you look, the harder it gets to discover what really was happening. The reason for this is that there are fewer sources of reliable information available, and they can also be very hard to find. Written records go back many thousands of years, the Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian civilisations had writing. These languages no longer exist so translating what was written was no easy task. Ancient Egyptians used a system of heiroglyphs (little pictures) to write things down. Translating these had been impossible until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. This contained the same information written in 3 'languages', one of which was Greek. That enabled historians to work out how to translate heiroglyphics. Historians work a little like scientists - they come up with an idea about a person or event from pieces of evidence that they find. This can then be revised as someone looks at the same evidence from a different viewpoint, or when new evidence is found. History can be very subjective, two people looking at the same facts can come to very different conclusions. Some history skills invove researching in libraries and other places where written records may be found. Where very little written evidence is available e.g. for people living way back in the stone ages, the bronze age or the iron age, different skills are required. That is where historians called archaeologists are needed. They dig into the ground to find artefacts that give clues as to what was happening where they are digging long ago in the past. They don't just dig at random, there are usually lots of clues which suggest that there is an archaeological site there. Sometimes, archaeological sites are discovered by accident e.g. during building works. When they have found sufficient artefacts, archaeologists can then interpret what they have found. They suggest a hypothesis as to how the people they are studying lived their lives. Excavation of more recent sites can also be carried out in order to supply evidence that supports written sources. Where a historic site has been occupied through many different periods of history, they can produce a timeline in order to show the events in the order that they occurred. Show less
When studying history, the further back you look, the harder it gets to discover what really was happening. The reason for this is that there are fewer sources of reliable information available, and they can also be very hard to find. Written records go back many thousands of years, the Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian civilisations had writing. These languages no longer exist so translating what was written was no easy task. Ancient Egyptians used a system of heiroglyphs (little pictures) to write things down. Translating these had been impossible until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. This contained the same information written in 3 'languages', one of which was Greek. That enabled historians to work out how to translate heiroglyphics.
Historians work a little like scientists - they come up with an idea about a person or event from pieces of evidence that they find. This can then be revised as someone looks at the same evidence from a different viewpoint, or when new evidence is found. History can be very subjective, two people looking at the same facts can come to very different conclusions.
Some history skills invove researching in libraries and other places where written records may be found. Where very little written evidence is available e.g. for people living way back in the stone ages, the bronze age or the iron age, different skills are required. That is where historians called archaeologists are needed. They dig into the ground to find artefacts that give clues as to what was happening where they are digging long ago in the past. They don't just dig at random, there are usually lots of clues which suggest that there is an archaeological site there. Sometimes, archaeological sites are discovered by accident e.g. during building works.
When they have found sufficient artefacts, archaeologists can then interpret what they have found. They suggest a hypothesis as to how the people they are studying lived their lives. Excavation of more recent sites can also be carried out in order to supply evidence that supports written sources. Where a historic site has been occupied through many different periods of history, they can produce a timeline in order to show the events in the order that they occurred.
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