ancient history Flashcards
Archeology
studies human past by examining physical objects or ARTEFACTS that have been left behind. An artefact is defined as an object produced or shaped by human craft.
Source
A SOURCE is anything that has survived from the past. It may be WRITTEN or ARCHAEOLOGICAL. It is the raw material that the historian uses to ask questions of the past.
Ancient source
An ANCIENT source comes from the same time as the person or event being studied.
Modern source
A MODERN source is something written about or copied from the past by people living in another time.
Physical Source
buildings, monuments, artefacts, organic remains
Written Source
Literary, epigraphic or numismatic
Literary
writings of people in the ancient world, such as historians, biographers, playwrights, orators etc. May also be lists of transactions, law codes, king lists.
Epigraphic
inscribed on clay, metal, stone or papyrus and may include graffiti.
Numismatic
provided by coins that show images of key figures, religious symbols, legends, special events and sometimes, a date.
Historiographic
books and articles produced by historians.
Provenance
Provenance is the documented history or the record of ownership of an artefact.
Relic
An authentic, original artefact that has survived in whole or in part from a time in the ancient past. It was made or altered by ancient humans in the context of their daily lives
Fake
An object that has been altered deliberately to deceive others into believing it to be an original and therefore valuable. Often fakes have been elaborately aged to make it difficult to detect them from the original
Replica
A reproduction of the original artefact that has been made for open and honest purposes, labelled as a reproduction, replica or duplicate at all times.
Replicas can be displayed, used for teaching purposes and handled by the public
Forgery
An entirely new work made to imitate an original
Radiocarbon
Radiocarbon dating, also known as carbon-14 dating, dates organic material between 50 000 and 400 years old. It works on the principle that all living things interact constantly with the atmosphere, absorbing carbon-14, which is a radioactive isotope of carbon.
Typology
The principle of organising finds in a chronological sequence is the basis of this technique. Groups or types of artefacts such as pottery, tools or weapons.
Three age system
This technique is proven as one of the most useful systems for organising finds in sequential order.
Stratigraphic
Relies on the relationship between the successive strata or layers of a dig, with the oldest material being in the lowest strata. As a dig progresses, each stratum is revealed, recording of artifacts is carried out.
Authentication
Assess the accuracy and usefulness of what they write by considering the purpose for the which they are writing ( social, political and historical contexts)
