Vocabulary: historical thinking

Know and use the vocabulary of historical thinking — source, evidence, primary source, secondary source, artefact, chronology, chronological order, BC/BCE, AD/CE, century, decade, era, period, timeline, excavation, archaeologist, interpretation, corroborate, bias, perspective — and apply these terms when discussing how we know about the past and how reliable our knowledge is

ages 6 to 108 practice questionsvideo included

What a learner can do afterwards

Correctly use BC/BCE and AD/CE to place events in time and explain what the letters stand for
Distinguish between a primary source and a secondary source with an example of each
Use 'evidence', 'interpretation', and 'bias' correctly in a sentence about a historical source

The lesson

When you read about the past, you might wonder how we really know it happened. Historians use special words to answer that question. A source is anything that gives clues about the past, like a letter, a photo, or a broken pot. The clues a source gives us are called evidence.

Years before year 1 are BC or BCE (Before Christ, or Before Common Era) and count down toward zero. Years after are AD or CE (Anno Domini, or Common Era) and count up. A century is 100 years, a decade is 10 years.

Try it together

Zara's grandpa kept his old football ticket from 1962. That ticket is a primary source, made by someone who was actually there. Zara also read a museum website about 1960s football, written today using many old tickets and photos. That website is a secondary source.

Putting things in the order they happened is called chronology, or chronological order. Each stretch of time here is a period or an era, some short, some long, all part of one long timeline.

Good to know

When archaeologists dig up old objects, the dig is called an excavation, and the objects are artefacts. If two sources tell the same event differently, that is because each writer has their own perspective, or bias. Before you trust an interpretation, corroborate it: check it against another source.

History detectives use words like source, evidence, chronology, and bias to work out what really happened, and how sure we can be about it.

Watch it

Where it sits

Learn first

Domain Vocabulary Across Subject Areas

This opens up

Different Accounts of the Same Event Evidence from the Past Understanding People in Their Own Time Evidence Versus Interpretation Questioning Historical Sources Checking Sources Against Each Other

Where this leads

Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.

Archaeologist Historian

Then practise

8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.