What is History?

What is History?

• History attempts to describe and explain the past.

What is History?

• History attempts to describe and explain the past. Historians are generally concerned with the causes, consequences and significance of events.

What is History?

• History attempts to describe and explain the past. Historians are generally concerned with the causes, consequences and significance of events. History is distinct from myths and narratives about the past in that History is exclusively concerned with what can be demonstrated through the reasoned use of evidence.

What is History about?• Once, History focused exclusively on war, politics and 'great

men'. Now, the discipline of History is much better at recognising that everything has a history and is much more diverse. Areas of study include, for example;

• the history of everyday life• the history of ideas• the history of technology• gender history• cultural history• art history

Periods of History*• Pre-History (before writing) - approx. 3000 BC

• Ancient History - > 500 AD

• Medieval History 500 - 1500 AD

• Modern History 1500 > present

* Used in the West (Europe and the Anglosphere)

The Mediterranean

• From Latin mediterraneus "midland;" original sense being of "sea in the middle of the earth," from medius "middle" + terra "land, earth". (www.etymonline.com)

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia on a Modern Map

The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent

Agriculture AKA Food Production(farming and animal husbandry)

• Domestication (from Latin domesticus) is the process where by a population of animals or plants is changed at the genetic level through a process of selection, in order to accentuate traits that benefit humans.

• Cultivation and tillage of soil• Harvesting for human purposes

The Benefits of Food Production