HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
An important part of this course is that you learn to understand and use evidence at all times. Here is some important information regarding historical evidence.
Historians use many kinds of evidence when trying to understand past societies. Traditionally, historical evidence has been written evidence, but increasingly this is changing as new remains of the past are (sometimes literally) unearthed, and as historians learn new ways to interpret this evidence.
The first category of evidence is made up of "artifacts." Artifacts are any objects that have been created by humans. These can be just about anything, cars, stone tools, baseball bats, graves, paintings, buildings, even money. For example, take out a dollar bill and look at it. Really look at it. What does it tell you about the country that printed it? What languages are on the bill? Are any dates given? Who are those people who signed it? Turn it over and look at the back. See the thirteen steps in the pyramid, the thirteen stars, the thirteen feathers, the thirteen arrows? Why would the number thirteen appear so many times? Is there anything religious or political about the dollar bill?
Do not worry, we do not expect you to figure out the United States based on the evidence of a dollar bill. But it is evidence! It is an artifact that can reveal something about the society, the people, who made it.
Historians also have other useful ways of classifying evidence. There is primary evidence and secondary evidence. Primary evidence can be anything produced in the place and during the time period that you are investigating. For example, if you are studying Egyptian society during the New Kingdom, you would look at evidence that, first, came from Egypt and, second, came from about 1500 BCE -- give or take a couple of centuries. If you were studying the origins of Islamic religion, for example, you would look at evidence that came from Mecca during the life of the Prophet Muhammed.
Beyond the definition of time and place, primary evidence is quite varied. In fact, many different things can be considered primary evidence. For example, historians often use written documents to learn about historical societies, and these can be very many things, written for many different reasons. They can be books of religion or philosophy. They can be instructions to diplomats or relatives. They can be letters. They can be business accounts. But primary evidence can be many other things too. Sculptures or other artwork can be used as primary evidence. Buildings, weapons, bones perhaps, and even maps can be classified as primary evidence. Historical evidence can be written, as very often it is, but it can also be visual or structural. Take a look around the campus and see the different building styles which were done at various times in the College's history. Virtually any artifacts can be used by historians to learn about past societies. The first example of a primary text you will read will be the Mesopotamian Revolt.
Secondary evidence is different. It is not produced in the time or place that it discusses. The best example is your CD-ROM textbook. Your text was written by historians about societies which they never visited and that existed long in the past, usually long before they were born. So how can those historians say anything about these past societies? They use primary evidence to produce an interpretation of what happened in the past. In other words, the interpretation of primary evidence produced by the historian is itself secondary evidence. Professor Ouwendijk's text on Hunter-Gatherer Technology is also a secondary source.
Can you now see why primary evidence is so important? If you want to know about what happened in ancient Africa, wouldn't you want to hear about it from ancient Africans themselves? This course will use mostly primary evidence, written and visual, to help you learn about the human past. This is not exactly an easy task, and you must learn to use evidence just as you must learn to drive a car or work a computer. But if you work hard and study the methods for using evidence, the rewards will just as satisfying. You will become much better readers and thinkers.