Understanding Our Past

Understanding Our Past

1. Prehistory: the long period of time before people invented systems of writing

   • With no written documents, specialists learn about our prehistory past by studying artifacts and oral narrative events.
   • Prehistoric evidence is a special interest of archaeologists, scientists who find and analyze the physical remains left by early people.
     • Archaeologists study remains such as bone fragments or early people or animals. Artifacts are objects made by human beings such as tools, weapons, pottery, clothing, or jewelry. By analyzing artifacts and other items, archaeologists draw conclusions about the beliefs, values, and activities of our ancestors.
     • Archaeology is a branch of anthropology, the study of humans and the societies they create. Other anthropologists may investigate the different parts of the world today.
     • Technology refers to the skills and tools people use to meet their daily needs. Many artifacts from prehistoric times were forms of technology.
     • Archaeologists today make detailed maps locating every artifact they find. They also use computers and aerial photography to interpret and analyze their findings.

2. Historians study how people lived in the past like archaeologists, however, they rely even more on written evidence such as letters or documents.

   • A historian must evaluate the evidence to determine if it is reliable. They must also interpret their evidence to explain what it means. Often, their goal is to determine the cause of a certain event. By understanding the past, they are able to understand present events and what will happen in the future.
   • Historians must give a straightforward account of events, however, personal experiences, cultural backgrounds, and political opinions may affect their interpretations, leading to debates between historians.
   • The first historians in the past wrote mostly of the good deeds of well-known people. Today, historians write about the lifestyles of everyday people as well as the actions of influential people.

3. Geography is the study of people, their environments, and the resources available to them. It is divided into five themes:

   • Most have to draw conclusions from limited evidence in which they have to analyze and interpret.
   • Theme: Location tells where a place is on the surface on the Earth. It can be located using longitude and latitude. Relative location is where one place is located in relation to another.
   • Theme: Places are described in terms of their physical features and human characteristics. Physical features include landforms, bodies of water, climate, soil quality, resources, and plant and animal life. Human characteristics include where most people live, their economic activities, religious beliefs, and languages.
   • Theme: Human-Environment Interaction is how we have shaped and been shaped by the places in which we have lived. As technology has advanced, we have changed the environment in more complex ways.
   • Theme: Movement includes the movement of people, goods, and ideas that links geography and history. In early times, nomads moved from place to place. In other times, people have migrated in search of jobs, land, resources, freedom, etc. Trade and ideas have increased ties between different civilizations and improved our standards of living.
   • Theme: Regions are parts of the world in which geographers have divided, some based on physical features, others based on political, economic, and cultural features.