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Introduction to History

Glossary of Key Terms


A.D.: the period of time after the birth of Christ. A.D. stands for Anno
Domini, which means In the year of our Lord.

Age: a period of time named after a feature of that time e.g. the Iron Age Anachronism: an item, custom or event placed in the wrong time period Archaeology: the study of what past civilizations have left behind, usually
through excavation

Archaeologist: a person who studies ancient cultures by excavating or


digging up objects at a site

Artefact: any object made, modified or used by humans, such as pottery,


clothing, tools, weapons

B.C.: the period of history before the birth of Christ. B.C. stands for Before
Christ.

B.C.E.: stands for Before Common Era and is used in non-Christian


countries in place of B.C.

Bias: one-sided or unbalanced point of view B.P.: stands for Before Present C.E.: stands for Common Era and is used in non-Christian countries in
place of A.D.

Cause: an event or action that produces an effect Century: a period of 100 years Chronology: the study of exactly when things happened Chronological Order: events arranged in the order that they happened Civilisation: a group of people who are considered to have reached a high
level of organization or development

Conservation: preserving something in its existing state or restoring it to


its original state

Dig: another word for the site of an archaeological excavation Document: anything that is written, usually on paper

Effect: a consequence or result of an action Empathy: when we imagine ourselves in the place of other people Evidence: objects, information or documents about the past used to prove
something happened

Excavation: to dig something up on an archaeological site Fact: information regarded as being unquestionably true, or able to be
proved

Generation: a body of people born in the same ten-year time span Heritage: all things that we have inherited from previous generations,
particularly things that we value, including events, traditions, monuments or natural environments

Historian: a person who studies the past to try to understand and


reconstruct what happened

History: the study of past events Investigate: to search for answers by asking questions, collecting
information and hunting for evidence.

Millennium: a period of 1000 years Opinion: what an person thinks about something, but is not able to prove Perspective: a particular point of view Prehistoric: belonging to the time before people created written records
(more than 5000 years ago)

Preserve: to protect against destruction or decay Primary Source: a source of evidence from the time being studied, e.g.
diaries, eyewitness accounts

Reliable: trustworthy and of good quality Secondary Source: a source of evidence created after the period being
investigated and which contains information taken from many other sources

Sequence: the order of time in which events occur Source: any item that can provide an historian with historical information Time line: a list of events shown in their chronological order along a line

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