History detective: how do we know?
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What you will learn
By the end, you can sort sources into primary and secondary, and ask the detective questions: who made it, when, why, and what is missing.
In 2010 a man with a metal detector was walking a field in Somerset when his machine buzzed. Buried below was a big clay pot packed with about 52,000 Roman coins. Nobody wrote down who buried them or why. So how can anyone find out? Historians work like detectives: they collect clues, ask questions and compare.
Read the explanation
A primary source comes from the time itself: a letter, a coin, a tool, a photograph, a building. A secondary source was made later by someone using primary sources: a textbook, a documentary, a museum label. Every source has a maker with a point of view, so historians ask: who made it, when, why, and for whom? Then they compare several sources — the strongest answers are the ones many sources agree on.
- Primary does not mean true: a primary source can be one-sided, mistaken or made to impress.
- Secondary does not mean useless: a careful secondary source compares many primary ones.
- Artefacts talk without words: where they were found, what they are made of and how worn they are are all clues.