What is History and Prehistory

Here you will learn about the basic of History and Prehistory which will eventually help you to grasp the things very quickly. Thank you

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1. PART- 1 PREHISTORY & HISTORY

2. Topics to be discussed- Prehistory & its sources Artefacts Fossils History & its sources Manuscript Inscription Monuments Coin History & Time Meaning of BC, AD, CE, BCE

3. WHAT IS PREHISTORY? There are no written records. 2. The main sources of information of prehistory are- i. archaeology ii. oral traditions (stories handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth).

4. Archaeology Archaeology means 'the study of ancient things’. 2. The archaeologists study the artefacts and fossils to understand the ancient past better. 3. Archaeologists are considered to be the scientists of history .

5. Artefacts Meaning- objects crafted by humans 2. Tools, weapons, pottery, toys, ornaments and other things used in ancient times have been uncovered at archaeological sites all over the world. These are called artefacts,.

6. ARTEFACTS

7. Fossils The remains of the dead or decay parts of the plants and animals body which is found under the soil or rocks are called fossils. 2. Fossils help archaeologists understand which animals were tamed in prehistoric times, and which were wild. 3. This is how we know that dogs were tamed almost 12,000 years ago.

8. FOSSILS

9. Oral Sources In India, the Vedas the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas were handed down orally for hundreds of years, till they were finally written down much later. 2. Dance and music in India also have strong oral traditions, with ragas and dance mudras being passed on almost unchanged from teacher (guru) to student (shishya).

10. WHAT IS HISTORY? History is a written account of people, places and events of the past . 2. It tells us how and where people lived, what they did, and what their customs and beliefs were. 3. It also tells us the way they traded, the wars they fought and the rulers who governed them.

11. HISTORY MEDIEVAL ANCIENT MODERN

12. SOURCES OF HISTORY 1. Manuscripts Religious Writing Secular( non- religious) Accounts of travellers 2. Inscriptions 3. Monuments 4. Coins

13. Manuscripts Handwritten records are called manuscripts. 2. Before people learnt to make paper, they wrote on dried palm leaves, the bark of trees and parchment (the dried skin of sheep and goats). 3.These manuscripts were often written in languages that are not in common use now, such as classical Greek and Latin in Europe, and Pali and Sanskrit.

14. Manuscripts are divided into- 1. Religious Writing -Puranas, the Tripitakas and the Angas 2. Secular( non- religious) Writing – i. Arthashastra by Kautilya ii. Harshacharita written by Banabhatta 3. Accounts of travellers Writing – Indica by Megasthenes

15. MANUSCRIPT

16. Inscriptions Inscriptions are writings carved on hard surfaces like metal, stone walls, rocks and pillars.

17. Monuments Archaeologists sometimes find the remains of ancient buildings that have been buried and forgotten is called archaeology sites . 2. The ancient buildings of historical importance and places of Worship that have not been buried underground. Such buildings that still remain today are called monuments .

18. 3. The Sanchi Stupa, the Taj Mahal and the Charminar are all examples of monuments. 4. Monuments tell us a great deal about the past, the age in which they were built and the people who built them. Efforts are made to preserve these historical monuments.

19. Coins 1. Like the coins that we use today, many ancient coins also had pictures and words on both sides. They depicted battle scenes, court scenes, the figures of gods and goddesses, and the faces of kings and queens. 2. The study of coins is known as NUMISMATICS .

20. HISTORY AND TIME The key terms used in history are- Decade- (a period of 10 years) Century- (a period of 100 years) Millennium- (a period of 1000 years)

21. To be able to locate an event in time, dates are used. Traditionally, the birth of Christ was used as the point from which years were numbered in history. 1. The years before the birth of Christ were labelled BC (meaning 'before Christ'). 2. The years were labelled after the birth of Christ AD (or Anno Domini. meaning, 'in the year of our Lord' in Latin) .

22. These days we use the terms- CE in place of AD and BCE in place of BC . CE stands for 'common era ', while BCE stands for before common era' . This system is thought to be a more neutral way of writing dates, acceptable to people of all religions.

23. An important thing to keep in mind with dates is that, in the period before the birth of Christ, years are counted backwards , that is, the year 200 BCE comes after the year 500 BCE on the timeline. Circa (c) is a Latin word that means 'around' or 'approximately . It is used when the exact date of an event is not known but is thought to be around the stated date.

24. QUICK RECAP 1. The study of the human past is broadly divided into two parts-prehistory and history. 2. Prehistory is an account of events that happened before people learnt how to write; and history is a written account of people, places and events of the past. 3. The main sources of prehistory are archaeology and oral history. 4. Archaeologists conduct tests on excavated objects to find out their age. 5. The sources of history are written records, inscriptions, coins and monuments. 6. To indicate dates in history, terms like BCE, CE and circa are used.

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