Understanding how to record history is part of the work of a historian. Methods that are used today are not the same as those used in the past. It is vital that a historian is aware of types of recorded history so that important evidence is not missed. Oral Tradition Before the invention of writing, … Read more
Historians use timelines to create an ordered view of history. By sequencing events into chronological order on a timeline, it becomes easier to see causes and effects of events. Timelines can be linear or comparative. Linear Timeline Linear timelines detail events that happened within a given time frame. This time frame could be a person’s … Read more
When a sequence of events are placed in the order in which they happened, this is called chronological order. When sorting events into chronological order, they should first be grouped by year with the earliest year first. If there are several events for a year then it is necessary to look at the date they … Read more
The word ‘chronology’ is derived from two Greek words – chronos, meaning time and logos meaning to work out or decipher. This means that ‘chronology’ literally means to work out time. In order to work out time we have to give it a logical order. Putting time in logical order can be as simple as … Read more
When historians talk about causation, they are trying to find out why something happened when it did. It could be argued that the cause of an event is everything that has gone before but that is not particularly helpful. In reality there are always more specific causes to be examined, some of which are not … Read more