Historian's Toolkit Lesson 1, Study notes of Prehistory

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Historian’s Toolkit

Lesson 1

I. Why Study History?

o We study history so we can understand what was important to people who

lived in the past, and to learn what happened to them.

B. Time and Place

1. Historians look at people and events of history in the matrix, or setting, of time and space.
2. Important to know where people were located.
3. Historians use number skills to research, organize, and write about history.

II. Measuring and Organizing Time

o To study the past, historians must have a way to identify and

describe when events happened.

B. Calendars

1. Are a system from breaking time into units; measure how much time has passed between events.
2. Chinese and Jewish calendars, for example, based their months on the appearance of the new moon.
3. Western calendar is the most commonly used. (originally Christian)
4. Jewish calendar begins 3760 years before the Western calendar. ◦ Traditions say the world was created at the time.
5. Muslims date their calendar from the time Muhammad left the city of Makkah for Madinah. (622 C.E. in Western calendar.

C. Dating Events

1. Dates in our textbook are based on the Western calendar.

2. A year is 365 days.

◦ B.C.E = years before birth of Jesus (dates move backwards)

◦ C.E. = years after birth of Jesus (dates move forwards)

A. History and Science

1. Historians use science to study prehistory.
2. Scientists study physical evidence to learn about our ancestors. o Archaeology use artifacts (tools, pottery, weapons, and jewelry) o Archaeologists study human and animal bones, seeds, trees, mounds, pits, and canals. o Paleontology look at prehistoric times, they use fossils. o Anthropology is the study of human culture and how it develops over time. o Anthropologists study artifacts and fossils for clues of the past.

B. Dating Artifacts

1. Dating artifacts is one of the most difficult jobs for archaeologists.
2. Determining the age of an artifact o How deep was something buried o Using rings of a tree o Radiocarbon dating (created by Willard Frank Libby, 1946) goes back 5000 o Thermoluminescence dating goes back 200,

3. New methods for analyzing remains such as blood, hair, and

plant tissues left on rocks, tools, and weapons.

4. DNA has provided new data.

IV. History and Geography

1. Geography is the study of Earth and its people, places, and natural surroundings.
2. Geographers look at people look at people and the world in which they live in terms of space and place.
3. The course of events in world history can be shown through geography.

A. Five Themes of Geography

1. Location ◦ Historians look at where a place is located. ◦ Every place has an absolute and relative location.
2. Place ◦ Describes all of the characteristics that give an area its own special quality.  Physical characteristics (mountains, waterways, climate and plant/animal life)  Human characteristics (language, religion, and architecture.
3. Human/Environment Interaction ◦ Relationship between people and their surroundings.  Landforms, waterways, climate, and natural resources all have helped or hindered human activities.
4. Movement o Throughout history, people, ideas, goods, and information have moved from place to place. o Transportation has allowed people to exchange ideas and cultures. o Communication has allowed people to find out about other parts of the world.
5. Region o Historians view areas as regions, which is defined by common features (physical features/human features)

V. Using Maps and Globes

1. Once it was learned that the Earth wasn’t flat, geographers had to find new ways to model the Earth. o Globe – a spherical model of the planet.  Shows the most accurate way to show sizes of continents and shapes of landmasses and bodies of water.
2. Maps – are flat and shows much more details. o Political borders, population densities, or even voting results. o They cannot show true size, shapes, distance and direction at the same time.
3. Both Maps and Globes are marked with imaginary lines to locate places on Earth. o The lines divide the Earth into halves call hemispheres.

A. Hemispheres

1. Location of places on Earth use a system of imaginary lines the crisscross the globe. ◦ Equator – circles the Earth like a belt in the middle.  Divides the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere ◦ Prime Meridian – runs from north to south  Divides the Earth into the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere

C. From Globes to Maps

1. When curves of a globe become straight lines on a map, the size, shape, distance, or area can change.
2. Mapmakers use mathematics to create different types of map projections or ways of showing the Earth on a flat sheet.

D. Flattening Out the Planet

1. Taking a flat image of the Earth leaves gaps. o To fill gaps mapmakers stretch parts of the Earth sometimes making it look the correct size or the correct shape. o Impossible to show both size and shape on a flat map.