Name: Getting to Know Our Past
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 6 min 23 s
Description: Humans have left behind chronicles of their lives through cave art, inscriptions, and manuscripts. Let’s examine these important traces of our past.

Question

What are the sources of history? How do they help in reconstructing the past?

Accepted Answer

The two main categories of historical sources are literary sources and archaeological sources.

Archaeological Sources: Sources used in archaeology are objects that have undergone excavation and analysis by archaeologists. These resources offer insightful information about earlier human societies, cultures, and activities. Some of the archaeological sources are are artifacts, ruins, structures, skeletal evidence, etc.

Literary Sources: Written documents and texts that offer historical knowledge are referred to as literary sources. They consist of historical texts, official documents, scriptures, etc.

These historical sources both literary and archaeological are significant due to following reasons:

Aids in the reconstruction of the past by offering various kinds of proof and data. The material remains of former human activities, habitats, and material cultures are provided through archaeological sources.

They shed light on social structures, economic systems, trade networks, technical developments, and aesthetic manifestations.

What are the sources of history? How do they help in reconstructing the past?

Important Questions on Introducing History

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