What constitutes Evidence in Historical Studies?

1. What constitutes Evidence in Historical Studies?

2. Types of Evidence • Primary Sources: Primary sources are artifacts, first-hand accounts and information about a topic produced by someone directly from the time period being studied. • Examples: bones, shards, personal memoirs, government documents, newspaper articles, telecasts, marriage licenses, gravestones, paintings, photographs, and posters

3. Evidence

4. Evidence

5. Primary Sources

6. Types of Evidence cont’d • A key Primary Source: Artifacts • Artifacts can be: • Human-made objects such as: tools, pottery, weapons, jewelry, metal objects, pieces of ruined buildings and architecture.

7. Types of Evidence cont’d “BIG” Questions related to Artifacts: • What is it? • What is it made of? • How was it made? • How does it work? • What else do we know?

8. Evidence cont’d: Artifacts • What is this? (take 2-3 minutes)

9. Evidence cont’d: Artifacts • Explanation: An ancient Greek computer • Using high-resolution X-ray tomography and 3D renderings, a group of Greek, American and British scientists has reconstructed the functioning of the Antikythera Mechanism, an analog computer that was found in 1901 in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera and that has now been dated to the second century BC, so about 2150 years ago.

10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eUibFQKJqI • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiQSHiAYt98&feature=related

11. Evidence cont’d: Artifacts • Professor Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University who led the most recent study of the mechanism said: "This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully...in terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa."[

12. Types of Evidence cont’d • Secondary Sources: Secondary sources are works that argue, reflect, and discuss earlier times. • Examples: secondary sources are works such as journal articles and books by historians and professional scholars, who are interpreting the events and primary sources that are being studied.

13. History and Science??? • Yes, in fact, History can be multi-disciplinary • There are four key sciences that historians use. Look at these pictures…what are they? (2-3 min)

14. Historians and Science • Anthropology: Studies the past by looking at the culture and social habits of a specific group or civilization • Archaeology: Specialists in the study of early humans and early civilizations. They work on excavation sites to find physical evidence. • Geology: Studies the past by examining rocks and minerals to identify climate and other natural patterns of the past • Paleontology: examine fossil remains of animal and plant life

15. Essential Question • Find out…for next week: • “Do we have enough traces, such as artifacts, bones, fossils, etc. to construct evidence of an evolutionary link between early humans and modern humans?”

16. In your response: • Explain all of the following in your response: • Tool making • Mastery of fire • Speech • Social Organization

18. Atlas of the Human Journey • https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/04/3/l_043_01.html

19. Early Human Migration

20. Examining Artifacts • http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/explorerflash/#

21. According to archaeologists… • …human evolution began more than five million years ago in an areas such as Central Africa and the fertile crescent. • The first humans appeared 2.5 million years ago in east Africa. • By 100 000 BC, humans had begun to migrate out of Africa. • By 10 000 BC, they had settled in almost every part of the world.

23. Australopithecus afarensis 3.5 million years ago Earliest skull discovered 1974- “Lucy”

24. Homo habilis • 2.5 million years ago • Earliest human descendant to use tools.

25. Homo erectus • 1.6 million years ago • They could walk completely upright • First species to use fire and the first to migrate to Europe and Asia to Africa.

26. The Ice Age begins… …1 million years ago…

27. Homo sapiens… • 500 000 BCE • Known for formulating spoken language and developing better tools. • In Latin- “Man who thinks”

28. …become sub-categorized • Neanderthal • About 230 000 BC to 30 000 BC • Migrated into Europe • They died out with the arrival of modern humans.

29. Cro-magnon man • 40 000 BC • Made clothing which helped them to endure colder climates • They crossed the Bering Strait and entered the Americas

31. The First Humans • About 2.5 million years ago, they used their hands to make simple stone tools which could be used for cutting. • They were hunter—gatherers. • After the ice-age, they were forced to grow their own food as natural supplies became scarce. • Between 11 000 and 8000 BC,farming began in several different places. • It is perhaps the most important event in human history as it led to new skills and technologies.

32. Early Humans • When farmers grew more food than they needed, they used the surplus as wealth. • As a result, differences of rank developed between people and society became gradually more complex. • By 1000 BC, more than half the world’s population lived by farming. • In some well favored places, the world’s first civilizations had emerged and the first writing systems come into use.