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Stories from HistoryHow We Know the PastD2.His.9.3-5

History Detectives

We learn about the past from sources: things people made and left behind, and words they wrote. Archaeologists dig them up; historians read and compare them.

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In 1922 an archaeologist named Howard Carter stepped down a dark staircase in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, held up a candle and peered through a hole into a sealed tomb. Someone asked if he could see anything. "Yes," he answered, "wonderful things." It was the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, untouched for more than 3,000 years.

Key idea

History is the true story of people in the past. We learn it from sources. A primary source comes from the time itself: a letter, a diary, a coin, a tool, a photograph. A secondary source is written later by someone studying the past, like this lesson or a history book.
Things people left behind are clues. Each one is a primary source.

Archaeologists dig carefully for things people left behind, from tiny beads to whole cities. They write down exactly where each thing was found, because the layer of soil tells its age: deeper layers are usually older. Historians read old writings, compare them and ask questions: Who wrote this? When? Why? Did they see it themselves?

A source is made by someone in the past and studied by someone today.

Worked example: Primary or secondary?

Which of these is a primary source about the Roman city of Pompeii: a coin found in the ruins of Pompeii, or a children's book about Pompeii written in 2015?
  1. The coin was made and used in Pompeii itself, before the city was buried in AD 79.
  2. The book was written almost 2,000 years later by someone studying the city.

Answer: The coin is a primary source. The book is a secondary source.

Common mistake

Thinking one source tells the whole truth. Two people can see the same event differently. Historians compare several sources before they decide what happened.

Why it works

Some of the best clues were found by accident. In 1799 French soldiers digging in Egypt found the Rosetta Stone. It had the same message in three scripts, and it helped scholars read Egyptian hieroglyphs for the first time in more than a thousand years.

Try it at home

  • Be a family historian. Ask a grandparent or older relative three questions: Where did you grow up? What did you do for fun as a child? What has changed most since then?
  • Write down the answers. You just made a primary source: an interview!
  • Find one old object at home, such as a photo, a letter or a coin. What can it tell you about the past?
Going further. See how the Rosetta Stone was found and read on the Timeline and in Ancient Egypt for Young Explorers. Older students learn to read sources closely in Primary and Secondary Sources (U.S. History I).
More on Teddy Rook BookTimeline of the Ancient World

Practice

Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 1 XP.

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