Historical sources can be found all around us, some sources are located in special places
Museums- Contains many Artefacts
Archives and Libraries- Contains many
important documentation and written
sources such as manuscripts.
Art Galleries- Contains paintings and
drawings which tell us about the past.
Unreliable Sources
Not all sources are reliable
1)Some might deliberately tell lies.
2)Some might be mistaken about their facts.
3)Some are unfairly one-sided or biased
4)Some are prejudiced. They make unfair judgements.
Tools and Methods
Tools
Trowels
Brushes
Buckets
Sieves
Toothbrushes
Plans
Methods
Stratigraphy- Artefacts
found deeper beneath the
surface are older than
artefacts found above them
in shallower ground.
Carbon Dating- When a plant or animal dies,
carbon begins to leak out slowly from its
body.By measuring how much carbon is left
in the dead plant or animal, scientists can
work out approximately when a plant or
animal died.
Pollen Analysis- Can be used to find
out what plants grew long ago in an
area. Pollen grains can sometimes
survive for thousands of years and can
be studied under a microscope.
Timelines are used by splitting the eras into sections
1)BC-Before Christ
2)AD-After Death (Anno Domini)
Archaeologists
There are certain steps used by Archaeologists to
excavate a site to its fullest potential.
1)Remove vegetation or topsoil.
2)Make a detailed plan of the site.
3)Divide the site into grids or squares, number each square and assign archaeologists to that specific area.
4)Each grid is worked on carfullly making sure no small artefact is over looked.
They use trowels, brushes and buckets to dig up the earth, Sieves are used to
sieved out the dirt.Toothbrushes are used to clean earth from artefacts without
damaging them.
5)The location of each find is recored on the plan then carefully
labelled and described.It is then placed iside a see-through plastic
bag and taken away to the laboratory for further experimentation.
6)At the Laboratory, each Artefact is dated. This means that an attempt is made to calculate its age.
Prehistory-Is the time before writing was invented, when history could not be recorded.