Let’s Talk History
How on
Earth do
you read
that?
Numbers? I
thought this was
social studies, not
math!
 Prehistory
 History
 Historians
 BEFORE
written
records
 A WRITTEN record of
the past
 A person who finds
out what happened in
the past.
History

Prehistory Example:
 Oral: stories or narratives passed down from
older generations to younger generations.
• Traditions, beliefs, folklore,…
• Thanksgiving table
• Crazy Uncle

Culture: describes the beliefs, traditions, music,
art and social institutions of a group of people,
Sources of Information

Primary Sources  First hand original
accounts of historical
events. Example;
letters, diaries,
speeches,
autobiographies,
newspaper reports, a
person who was there,
remains, clothing, art,
graves.

Secondary Sources  Accounts of historical
events written by people
who did not personally
witness the event.
Example; biographies,
textbooks, maps,
encyclopedias and
reference books.
Using Primary Sources
 Frame
of
Reference
A
person’s views
can be
influenced by
social group,
religion,
occupation, and
political attitudes.
Yum
sandwiches!
Details are still sketchy, but we think the name
of the bird sucked into the jet's engines was
Harold Meeker."
How birds see the world
"Oh,
Ginger—
you look absolutely
stunning ...
and whatever you rolled
in sure does stink."
Dates
 Chronology
 Time
line
 The
order in
which events
occur.
 Shows at a
glance the
chronology or
time order of
events
 B.C.
 B.C.E.
 Stands
for “before
Christ”.
 Starts backwards
from when Christ
was born.
 Before Common
Era (same time
period as B.C.)
 A.D.
(you usually
 Wont see this)
 Latin
abbreviation
anno Domino
which means in the
year of our lord.
 Starts when Christ
was born
 Common
 C.E.
Erasame as A.D.
current time period
TIME LINE
SIMPLE RULES TO REMEMBER
 ADD
THE BC (OR BCE) DATE TO THE
PRESENT DATE TO FIND OUT HOW
LONG AGO AN EVENT WITH A BC
DATE
 SUBTRACT THE AD (OR CE) DATE
FROM THE PRESENT YEAR TO FIND
OUT HOW LONG AGO THE EVENT
WAS
Centuries
 To
figure out what Century (every 100
years) an event happened in, you look at
the first number (or numbers) of the year
and add 1 (this is because there is no year
0)
 Ex. 1764 is the 18th Century 17 + 1 = 18
 2010 is the 21st century 20 + 1= 21
 789 is the 8th century 7+1=8
 Decade
 10
 Century
 100
years
 Centennial
years
 Celebration
every 100 years
 Bicentennial
 Celebration
every 200 years
Practice

1) The year 500 B.C.
or B.C.E. happened
A. before 300 B.C.
 B. after 300 B.C.
 C. at the same time
2) How many years ago
was A.D. 1510?
3) What would you do to
find out long ago 200
B.C. was?


4) What century is
1776?
 5) If humans arrived
in North America
some 30,000 years
ago, was that before
or after the Birth of
Christ?
ANSWERS

1) The year 500 B.C.
or B.C.E. happened
A. before 300 B.C.
 B. after 300 B.C.
 C. at the same time
2) How many years ago
was A.D. 1510? 500
years
3) What would you do to
find out long ago 200
B.C. was? Add 200 to
the current year: 2,210


4) What century is
1776? 18th
 5) If humans arrived
in North America
some 30,000 years
ago, was that before
or after the Birth of
Christ? Before
Archaeologists v. Anthropologists


Archaeologists: study the artifacts and fossils to learn about the life
and people of early times.
Anthropologists: study the development of human culture…”Paint
us a picture of the times.”
• Carbon 14 Testing: used to help date artifacts and fossils

Dr. W.F. Libby