Some Important Definitions for Studying the Past

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Some Important Definitions for Studying the Past

• History, Historian, Prehistory, Archeology,
  Archeologist, Artifact, Fossil, Primary Source,
  Secondary Source, Anthropologist, Paleontologist,
  Geologist

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Join Barney in exploring different Fields of
History!
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History
The study of the past. It is the period of time
after people began writing things / information
down.
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People who study the past

• Historian
• Archeologist
• Anthropologist
• Paleontologist
• Geologist

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Historian

• Definition
• A person who studies and writes about the human
  past, trying to give an objective interpretation
  of it.
• This area is more general

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Prehistory

• The period of time before events were recorded in
  writing.
• Before written history.
• The time before there
• was writing.

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Adventures in Archeology
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Archeologist

• Studies the past by using artifacts to discover
  clues to ancient civilizations and mysteries.

Individual who hunts for evidence buried in the
ground where settlements (communities,
civilizations) might once have been.
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ARCHAEOLOGY

• The study of the past based on what people left
  behind.

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Artifact

• An object (weapon, tool, or other things) created
  and used by humans in the past.

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Fossil

• A part of or an imprint of something that was
  once alive (plants or animals) and has been
  preserved (in rock).

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Primary Source

• A first hand account of an event by someone who
  took part in or witnessed the event OR an
  artifact created during a period of history.
  (Copies of the original also count)
• Includes diaries, letters, editorials, speeches,
  and legal documents. Newspaper articles,
  autobiographies, personal memoirs, photographs,
  paintings, political cartoons.

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Primary Sources Continued

• Primary Sources provide a way to understand more
  directly what people of a particular time period
  were doing, thinking, eating,and believing.
• Primary sources are VALUABLE TOOLS

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Secondary Sources

• Information gathered by someone who did not take
  part in or witness an event. These are
  descriptions or interpretations of events.
  However, they were written after the events took
  place and by people who did not witness the
  events.

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Secondary Sources Continued

• EXAMPLES Book about a topic Ancient China,
  your textbook.
• Writers of secondary sources have the advantage
  of being able to see what happened after the time
  period being studied. They can also provide a
  wider perspective than any ONE participant or
  witness to an event can.

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Anthropologist

• Studies the past by looking at the culture of a
  specific group or civilization

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Paleontologist

• Studies the past by examining fossils to discover
  and reconstruct the past

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Geologist

• Studies the past by examining rocks and minerals
  to identify climate and other natural patterns of
  the past

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Why are these people and fields of study
important?

• What do you think???????????

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Here are a few ideas

1. Helps us understand who we are today, by knowing
   where we come from.
2. Insights to how the ancient cultures worked and
   functioned, so we may apply this information to
   ourselves.
3. Because it is fun to learn about.

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Thats It For Now