Chapter One Study GuideCheck your answers!

Anno Domini• The year of our lord.

Historian• A writer of history.

Bias• A prejudgment for or against a topic/issue.

Stereotype• A general label put on a group of people.

Oral History• A spoken record of historical events. (storytelling)

Fossil• An imprint of a plant or animal in a rock.

Archaeologist• A scientist who studies history based on what humans have

left behind.

Artifact• An item that was created or used by humans.

History • The study of the past.

Prehistory• The history of the world before the invention of writing.

Primary Source• A source that comes from the time period being studied. • Examples: Written documents, witnesses, artifacts

Secondary Source• A source that was created after the time period being studied,

usually by someone who wasn’t there.

Example of an artifact:• Any items used by humans. • Examples: toys, documents, clothes, furniture, garbage

Example of a fossil:• A leaf imprinted in a rock, a bee or fish imprinted in a rock. • Examples: bones can also be fossilized.

What could the discovery of a plate tell us about ancient people?• You need to think about what we could learn from this!

• *It probably wouldn’t still have food on it. • Think about: What was it made out of? How was it made?

(quality) Are there decorations? Is it from specific culture?

16. What is bias? Why do we need to be careful when using written primary sources?

• Bias is a prejudgment or opinion. (usually based on personal experiences)

• In the Sir Sam articles, there were two very different opinions. People have different perspectives. So, one has to be careful to make sure that the information is based on fact and just not an emotional opinion.

17. How are primary sources like secondary sources? How are they different?• They both give historical information. They are both valid

ways to study a historical period of time. • Primary sources come directly from the time period being

studied. On the other hand, one needs to have primary sources in order to write the secondary sources.

18. If someone visited your house in the future, how could they tell what your parents did for a living?

• Example: ID badge- the badge could have a picture of your parents in their work uniform. Also, it could have the name of the company or the logo of the company.

• You will need to come up with at least one more on your own and be able to explain it!

19. Name two bad things about Oral History. • 1. If the story isn’t told, it dies with the person who knows it. • 2. Parts of the story could be lost in translation or contain

inside jokes the listener doesn’t understand. • 3. People could exaggerate the story to make it more

interesting. • 4. The story could be made up. • 5. People purposely could leave parts out to make it more

interesting or for their own personal reasons.

20. Photographs• Helpful- They can show what happened at an exact moment in

time. They can show the emotion of a moment in time. They can show how places and people have changed over time.

• Non-helpful- They can be misleading because people make judgments based on the pictures. They could be edited or photo-shopped.

21. Why did historians come up with BCE and CE instead of BC and AD?

• CE and BCE mean Common Era and Before the Common Era, they aren’t tied to religion. Only 31.5% of the world’s population is Christian and BC and AD are Christian terms.