Historical sources are essential for studying the past, providing information from written documents, non-written items, and artifacts. Understanding the distinction between primary and secondary sources, based on their creation time relative to the historical event, is crucial for accurate historical analysis and assessment.
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historical sources are central to your
study of the past and are important to
your success in history assessment
pieces therefore it is crucial that you
understand what historical sources are
and the various kinds and types they
exist in so what is a historical source
a source is something that provides you
with information about the historical
topic you are studying they can either
be written like books or websites or non
written like photographs or artifacts no
matter what you're doing in history
you'll use sources in order to find out
information from the past this could
mean simply reading a textbook or a
website or attempting to interpret
ancient artifacts either way these
documents and artifacts provide
information that is useful to your
historical studies and are therefore
considered sources there are two kinds
of sources primary and secondary the
main difference between a primary and a
secondary source is when they were made
in order to determine whether a
particular source is a primary or
secondary source you need to determine
it's time of creation if a source was
made during the historical period you're
studying it is considered a primary source
source
if the source was made after the time
period you're studying it is considered
a secondary source so what are primary
sources as stated primary sources are
sources of information that are made
during the historical period that you
are studying for example if you're
studying World War one any document
created at the time of the war would be
considered a primary source
alternatively a primary source is a
document that was made by someone who
lived through the events they described
even if they wrote down what they saw
several years later
for example someone could have lived
through World War one as a teenager but
only wrote down their experiences
decades later as a result their writing
is still considered a primary source
about World War one often primary
sources are the most difficult to find
but as a result are often the strongest
evidence you can use in your assessment
pieces there are some common types of
primary sources that you will be looking
at the most common are published
documents these are written sources that
were intentionally published to be read
by other people
examples of published documents include
books magazines news
government documents advertisements maps
posters and legal documents when reading
published documents please remember that
just because they are published does not
necessarily make them accurate or
reliable another type of primary source
is an unpublished document unpublished
documents are also mainly written
sources but were not originally intended
to be read by a wide audience and we're
typically only meant for the personal
use of the author examples of
unpublished personal documents include
letters diaries and school report cards
unlike published documents unpublished
records may be difficult to find because
few copies exist please be aware that in
some cases unpublished documents can be
collected and eventually published but
always keep in mind that they were not
originally intended for public
consumption a third type of primary
source our visual documents these are
sources that are predominantly images
and not words such examples of visual
documents include photographs films
paintings cartoons and posters since
visual documents contain more images
than words they require careful
interpretation to work out what message
they're trying to convey the final type
of primary source are artifacts
artifacts and man-made objects that are
usually uncovered by archaeologists
examples of artifacts are pottery
furniture clothing buildings and other
physical items from the past like visual
documents because there is no writing on
artifacts they require careful
interpretation to be used as evidence in
your arguments usually you can use
artifacts to corroborate or contradict
what your written sources say about the
past in contrast to primary sources
secondary sources are documents that
were made after the time period you are
studying and were created by people who
didn't personally experience the events
they described for example if you're
reading a history textbook about World
War one by author who didn't live
through the war it would be considered a
secondary source since secondary sources
can basically be written by anyone since
the time of the events you'll find that
some secondary sources are better than
others typically you should only use
secondary sources that are written by
qualified historians such as academics
as they are usually more alive
like primary sources secondary sources
come in different types the most common
type of secondary sources are books
books such as school textbooks often
have a lot of information about a
particular historical period another
common type of secondary source are
academic journal articles academic
articles the documents that are written
by University academics that are
published in academic journals for other
university academics to read since
academic journal articles are the result
of many years of research by specialists
in particular areas of history they are
some of the highest quality secondary
sources you can use however please be
aware that academic journals are written
for an academic audience so the language
can be very difficult to read at first a
third kind of secondary source our
websites there are countless numbers of
websites that discuss historical events
and people as a result different
websites vary widely and accuracy
reliability and relevance however very
few of them are created by qualified
historians or experts in their fields
therefore be critical of the websites
you find through a basic Google search
as most not of sufficient quality for
your essays if you choose to use
websites as secondary sources make sure
you only choose them from respectable
individuals or institutions such as
universities museums or government
archives so now that you know what
primary and secondary sources are and
what types they exist in let's look at
some examples to solidify your learning
the example sources we'll be looking at
will be providing information about the
ancient Roman city of Pompeii and Italy
which was buried as a result of an
eruption from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79
the first source is by Roman author
called Plenty the younger who wrote a
letter about the events to his friend
Tacitus in the letter he says that one
day between 2:00 and 3:00 in the
afternoon a cloud of unusual size and
appearance was rising from Vesuvius I
can best describe its shape by likening
it to a pine tree it rose into the sky
on a very long trunk from which spreads
and branches ash was falling bits of
pumice and rocks that were blackened and
burned and shattered by the fire the
buildings were being rocked by a series
of strong tremors and appeared to have
come loose from their found
nations and to be sliding this way and
that now even though plenty wrote this
letter many years after the events
occurred he was still an eyewitness of
the eruption therefore he is considered
a primary source of the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 a second example
is also a Roman author called cassia zio
who wrote a history book about ancient
Rome in which he mentioned the eruption
he describes the events as follows a
great fire suddenly flared up at the
very end of the summer Mount Vesuvius
had inexhaustible fountains of fire then
came sudden violent earthquakes first
huge stones flew up as high as the
mountain top then came a great quantity
of fire and endless smoke all the while
an inconceivable quantity of ash was
being blown out it buried two entire
cities Herculaneum and Pompeii now kasi
Ostia wasn't born until 81 fifty-five I
didn't write his historical account
until over a hundred years after the
events took place therefore he has
considered a secondary source for the
event as he describes a third and final
source are the archaeological remains of
the city of Pompeii itself an entire
Roman city buried in metres of Ash and
pumice the remains of countless
earthquake damaged buildings and
entombed human remains all corroborate
the information provided by Pliny and
Kassius Dyer the physical remains of
Pompeii date from the time of the
eruption in AD 79 so they are also
considered primary sources now you have
a better understanding of primary and
secondary sources and the different
types that can be sorted into I hope
that you feel more confident in your
studies if you need further explanations
examples and advice head over to history
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