Primary and Secondary Sources

Question 1

What is a Primary Source?

Answer 1

A Primary Source is:

• First hand clues from the actual time
• Accounts or events written at the time or soon afterwards e.g. Photos or Paintings.

Question 2

What is a Secondary Source?

Answer 2

A Secondary Source is:

• The works of other historians
• Historic evidence that has already being selected and interpreted (understood)

Question 3

What does B.C,A.D,BCE stand for?

Answer 3

B.C= Before Christ
A.D= Anno Domini
BCE= Before the common era

Question 4

Four points about primary and secondary sources:

Answer 4

Sources can be primary or secondary
Sources are used as evidence
Evidence from the past is never complete
Historians decide which evidence is important

Question 5

What is the difference between primary and secondary sources?

Answer 5

Primary source is first hand ie paintings/pictures

Secondary source is your own own opinion and what historians say.

Question 6

What are the three sources of history?

Answer 6

Written
Material/Artefacts
Oral