UNIT 0: INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY 1ºESO

UNIT 0: INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY

First of all, what do you know about History?

But, what really is History?

History is the science that studies how people lived in other eras and what the most significant events of the past were.

And, what kind of tools use historians to study and investigate History?

Two main historical sources:

• Primary sources: were created by people who took part in the events or who directly witnessed them.

• Secondary sources: were created after the event that they cover, and are usually made by historians.

And also, primary and secondary sources can be classified according to their type:

• Oral sources: narrated information from the past (speeches, etc.)
• Graphic sources: images relating to the past (maps, photos, etc.)
• Written sources: texts about the past (censuses, diaries, newspapers, etc.)
• Material sources: constructions and objects from the past (coins, sculptures, etc.)

Now it's your turn...

• Classify the following historical sources:

Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century AD

Coronation of Juan Carlos I. November 22, 1975

History manual

Human skull found in Atapuerca 430,000 years old

But, how do we know if the sources are authentic and reliable?

The value of a historical source depends on its authenticity and its reliability. It is a guarantee that the historical source is not false and belongs to the period being analysed and to its author.

And, how do we ensure authenticity?

• Comparing the sources with other documents from the same era or looking for anachronisms (words or references from a later period).

• Using auxiliary sciences that contribute with complementary information.

Types of auxiliary sciences:

• Archaeology: analyses material remains from the past that are found in archaeological sites.
• Genealogy: finds a person's ancestors and descendants.
• Palaeography: deciphers old writings.

How we measure historical time?

• Short periods: days, months and years.

• Long periods: centuries (100 years) and millennia (1000 years).

Dates also allow us to group together objects, events and aspects that are simultaneous. We can establish their succession, or order, in time.

The time before and after Christ

A large part of the world uses the Christian era. This system uses the birth of Jesus (year 1) as a reference point for numbering years.

• For events before year 1, we say they happned before Christ (BC). We put BC dates in reverse order, counting down the years until the birth of Jesus.
• For events after year 1, we say they happened after Christ (AD, Latin abbreviation Anno Domini).
• There is no year 0: we jump from 1 BC to AD 1.

How to relate years and centuries

• To know to which century a year corresponds we add 1 to the hundreds. For example: 1754 belongs to th 18th century (17 + 1 = 18).
• This method does not work for years ending in 00. In these cases, the number preceding the two zeros indicates the century. For example: 1400 belongs to the 14th century.
• The 1st century begins in the year 1 and ends in the year 100.

Now it's your turn...

• In what year and century are we living?

• Put the following years in chronological order and write the century they belong to: AD 1962, 375 BC, AD 1200, 1 BC, AD 729.

Historical periods

Historians divide the past into periods to better study the evolution of human beings. They have established five periods:

• Primary source.
• Material source.

measure = medida

• Primary source.
• Material source.

anachronisms = anacronismos

• Secondary source.
• Written source.

The historical sources

This sources are the remains and the evidence that our ancestors left behind.

censuses = censos

archaeological sites = yacimientos arqueológicos palaeography = paleografía

• Primary source.
• Graphic source.

authenticity = autenticidad reliability = fiabilidad