What is History?
Chapter 1, Lesson 1
Why Study History?
► History
is the study of people and events of
the past.
► What happens in the past affects the future.
 Ex: The creation of the wheel affected the use
of horse-drawn carts.
 This leads to the creation of the car.
Measuring Time
A way to measure time is by labeling groups
of years.
► Decade – 10 years
► Century – 100 years
► Millennium – 1,000 years
Measuring Time
• Era - A long and distinct period of history with a
particular feature or characteristic.
 Prehistory – The first of these long periods.
► Known
as the time before people developed writing.
 Ancient History
► Writing
was invented 5,500 years ago. Ended c. A.D. 500.
(c. means around or about)
 Middle Ages – the medieval period.
► c.
A.D. 500 to c. A.D. 1400
 Modern History –
► begins
c. A.D. 1400 to the Present day
Measuring Time
► Calendars
in order.
– A tool used for arranging days
 Cultures around the world have created about
40 different calendars.
 Some based on the cycles of the moon.
►Chinese,
Jewish, and Ancient Egyptians calendars
were based on the appearance of the moon.
Measuring Time
► Julian
Calendar
 Invented by Julius Caesar
 Began counting years from the founding of
Rome
 A years was 365 ¼ days long.
 The years with the complete day were called
leap years.
 Was not precise lost several minutes each year.
 For about every 128 years, 1 day was lost.
Measuring Time
► Gregorian
Calendar
By A.D. 1852, Julian Calendar lost about 10 days.
Pope Gregory XIII created a new calendar.
Years began count from the birth of Jesus Christ.
The days between Oct. 4th and 15th were dropped
of THAT year.
 Contains leap years like the Julian Calendar.




►A
century may not be a leap year if it is not divisible by
400.
► By doing this, the calendar will not lose day for thousands
of years.
Gregorian Calendar
► Not
all countries accepted the Gregorian
calendar right away.
► Took almost 3 centuries to be adopted.
 Today, most of the world uses this calendar.
► Other
calendars are also based on religious
events.
 Jewish calendar begins 3,760 before the Gregorian
calendar.
 Muslims date there calendar from when Muhammad
left Makkah (Mecca) to go to Madinah (Medina)
 This was A.D. 662 on the Gregorian calendar.
Dating Events
► B.C.
– Before Christ
 In B.C., years are count down to 1.
► A.D.
– Anno Domini
 Latin for “Year of the Lord.”
 When transitioning between B.C. to A.D. there is no
Year 0.
► B.C.E
– Before Common Era
► C.E. – Common Era
 B.C.E. and C.E. are non religious versions of B.C.
and A.D.
Using Timelines
►A
timeline is a tool used to track the
passage of time
 Shows the order of when events occurred.
 Shows the time between events.
 Usually evenly spaced.
► In
the event that a timeline covers a long
period of time, a slant or a break appears to
show an omitted section of time.
Digging up the Past
► Archaeology
– the study of the past
through artifacts.
 Artifacts are objects created by people.
► Paleontology
times
– Look towards prehistoric
 Study fossils to see what the world was like.
 Fossil – a preserved remain of an animal or
plant.
► Anthropology
– Study of Human cultures
and how these develop over time.