Recorded history: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Linear A tablets filt.jpg|thumb|right|325px|[[Linear A]] etched on tablets found in Akrotiri, [[Santorini]].]]

'''Recorded history''', sometimes referred to as '''written history''', is a concept describing the availability of a written record or some other form of documented communication that can be used to support a specific [[history|historical narrative]]. Because of its dependence on documentation, recorded history can be contrasted with other narratives of the past such as [[myth]]ological or [[oral tradition]]s.

For [[world history]], recorded history begins with the accounts of the [[Ancient history|ancient world]] around the [[4th millennium BC]], and coincides with the [[invention of writing]]. For some regions of the world, written history is limited to a relatively recent period in human history. Moreover, human cultures don't always record all information relevant to later historians, such as natural disasters or the names of individuals; thus recorded history for particular types of information will limited based on the types of records kept. Thus recorded history in different contexts may refer to different periods of time depending on what is being recorded.

The interpretation of recorded history often relies on [[historical method]], or the set of techniques and guidelines by which historians use [[primary source]]s and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the [[philosophy of history]] as a question of [[epistemology]]. The study of historical method and writing is known as [[historiography]].

==Prehistory==

[[File:Sumerian 26th c Adab.jpg|thumbnail|right|Sumerian inscription in monumental archaic style, c. 26th century BC]]

{{further|History of writing}}

[[Prehistory]] traditionally refers to the span of time before recorded history, ending with the invention of [[writing systems]].<ref name="Shotwell1922">Shotwell, James Thomson. An Introduction to the History of History. Records of civilization, sources and studies. New York: Columbia University Press, 1922.</ref> Prehistory refers to the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. Since the 20th century, the study of prehistory is considered essential to implicit exclusion of certain preliterate civilizations, such as those of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], [[pre-Columbian]] America, [[Australian Aboriginals]] and New Zealand [[Māori people|Māori]].

[[Protohistory]] refers to the transition period between prehistory and history, after the advent of [[literacy]] in a society but before the writings of the first [[historians]]. Protohistory may also refer to the period during which a [[culture]] or [[civilization]] has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have noted its existence in their own writings.

More complete writing systems were preceded by [[proto-writing]]. Early examples are the [[Jiahu symbols]] (ca. 6600 BC), [[Vinča signs]] (ca. 5300 BC), early [[Indus script]] (ca. 3500 BC) and [[Nsibidi]] script (ca. before 500 AD). There is disagreement concerning exactly when prehistory becomes history, and when proto-writing became "true writing"<ref>Smail, Daniel Lord. On Deep History and the Brain. An Ahmanson foundation book in the humanities. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.</ref> However, invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]] in the late [[Neolithic]] of the late [[4th millennium BC]]. The [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] archaic [[cuneiform (script)|cuneiform script]] and the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400–3200 BC with earliest coherent texts from about [[26th century BC|2600 BC]].

{{main|Historiography#The history of written history|l1=Historiography – The history of written history}}

The earliest [[Chronology|chronologies]] date back to the two earliest civilizations: the ancient [[Sumerians]] of [[Mesopotamia]] and the [[Early Dynastic Period of Egypt]]<ref>{{cite web|title=The Cuneiform Writing System in Ancient Mesopotamia: Emergence and Evolution|url=http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/cuneiform-writing-system-ancient-mesopotamia-emergence-and-evolution|publisher=EDSITEment|accessdate=16 December 2013}}</ref> which emerged independently of each other from roughly 3500 B.C.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kott|first=Ruth E.|title=The origins of writing|url=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/1102/features/the_origins_of_writing.shtml|publisher=The University of Chicago Magazine|accessdate=16 December 2013}}</ref> Earliest recorded history, which varies greatly in quality and reliability, deals with [[Pharaoh]]s and their [[List of pharaohs|reigns]], made by [[ancient Egypt]]ians.<ref>{{cite book|last=Adès|first=Harry|title=A Traveller's History of Egypt|year=2007|publisher=[[Interlink Publishing]]|isbn=978-1566566544|page=28}}</ref> Much of the earliest recorded history was re-discovered relatively recently due to [[archaeological site|archaeological dig sites]] findings.<ref>{{cite book|last=Greer|first=Thomas H.|title=A Brief History of the Western World|year=2004|publisher=[[Cengage Learning]]|isbn=978-0534642365|page=16}}</ref>

[[Herodotus]] of [[Halicarnassus]] (484 BC – ca.425 BC)<ref name="lamberg-karlovsky-p5">{{cite book |title=Ancient Civilizations: The Near East and Mesoamerica |author=Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. and Jeremy A. Sabloff |publisher=Benjamin-Cummings Publishing |year=1979 |page=5|isbn=0-88133-834-6}}</ref> has generally been acclaimed as the "father of history". However, his contemporary [[Thucydides]] (ca. 460 BC – ca. 400 BC) is credited with having first approached history with a well-developed historical method in his work the [[History of the Peloponnesian War]]. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus, regarded history as being the product of the choices and actions of human beings, and looked at cause and effect, rather than as the result of divine intervention.<ref name="lamberg-karlovsky-p5"/>

The groundwork for professional historiography in [[East Asia]] was established by the [[Han Dynasty]] court historian known as [[Sima Qian]] (145–90 BC), author of the ''[[Shiji]]'' ([[Records of the Grand Historian]]). For the quality of his written work, Sima Qian is posthumously known as the Father of [[Chinese Historiography]]. [[Zuo Qiuming]] is traditionally identified as the author of the historical text ''[[Zuo Zhuan]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Rhetoric in ancient China, fifth to third century, B.C.E.: a comparison with classical Greek rhetoric|author=Xing Lu|publisher=[[University of South Carolina Press]]|year=1998|page=107|isbn=1-57003-216-5}}</ref>

[[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]] was influential in [[Western Christianity|Christian]] and [[Western thought]] at the beginning of the medieval period. Through the Medieval and [[Renaissance]] periods, history was often studied through a [[sacred history|sacred]] or religious perspective. Around 1800, German philosopher and historian [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] brought [[philosophy]] and a more [[secular]] approach in historical study.<ref name="graham-ch1">{{cite book |title=The Shape of the Past |author=Graham, Gordon |publisher=[[Oxford University]] |year=1997 |chapter=Chapter 1}}</ref>

In the preface to his book, the ''[[Muqaddimah]]'' (1377), the [[Historiography of early Islam|Arab historian]] and [[Sociology in medieval Islam|early sociologist]], [[Ibn Khaldun]], warned of seven mistakes that he thought that historians regularly committed. In this criticism, he approached the past as strange and in need of interpretation. Ibn Khaldun often criticized "idle [[superstition]] and uncritical acceptance of historical data." As a result, he introduced a [[scientific method]] to the study of history, and he often referred to it as his "new science".<ref>[[Ibn Khaldun]], Franz Rosenthal, N. J. Dawood (1967), ''The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History'', p. x, [[Princeton University Press]], ISBN 0-691-01754-9.</ref> His historical method also laid the groundwork for the observation of the role of [[State (polity)|state]], [[communication]], [[propaganda]] and [[systematic bias]] in history,<ref name=Mowlana>H. Mowlana (2001). "Information in the Arab World", ''Cooperation South Journal'' '''1'''.</ref> and he is thus considered to be the "father of historiography"<ref>Salahuddin Ahmed (1999). ''A Dictionary of Muslim Names''. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 1-85065-356-9.</ref><ref name=Enan>{{Cite book|title=Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Works|first=Muhammed Abdullah|last=Enan|publisher=[[The Other Press]]|year=2007|isbn=983-9541-53-6|page=v|postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> or the "father of the philosophy of history".<ref name=Akhtar>Dr. S. W. Akhtar (1997). "The Islamic Concept of Knowledge", ''Al-Tawhid: A Quarterly Journal of Islamic Thought & Culture'' '''12''' (3).</ref>

In the West historians developed modern methods of historiography in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in France and Germany. In the 20th century, academic historians focused less on epic nationalistic narratives, which often tended to glorify the nation or [[great men theory|great men]], to more objective and complex analyses of social and intellectual forces. A major trend of historical methodology in the 20th century was a tendency to treat history more as a [[social science]] rather than as an [[art]], which traditionally had been the case. French historians associated with the [[Annales School]] introduced quantitative history, using raw data to track the lives of typical individuals, and were prominent in the establishment of [[cultural history]].

==Methods of recording history==

While recorded history begins with the invention of writing, over time new ways of recording history have come along with the advancement of technology. History can now be recorded through [[photography]], [[audio recording]]s, and [[video recording]]s. More recently, [[internet archive]]s have been saving copies of webpages, documenting the history of the interent.

Since at least the 20th century, attempts have been made to preserve [[oral history]] by recording it. Until the 1990s this was done using [[analogue recording]] methods such as [[Compact Cassette|cassettes]] and [[reel-to-reel tape]]s. With the onset of new technologies, there are now [[digital recording]]s, which may be recorded to CDs.<ref>{{cite web|title=Preserving Oral History Recordings|url=http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/nlasp/article/viewArticle/1034/1302|publisher=National Library of Australia|accessdate=16 December 2013|author=Colin Webb|coauthors=Kevin Bradley|archiveurl=http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/21336/20080620-0137/www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/cwebb4.html|archivedate=20 June 2008|deadurl=no|year=1997}}</ref>

===Historical method===

The [[historical method]] comprises the techniques and guidelines by which [[historian]]s use [[primary source]]s and other evidence to research and then to [[historiography|write history]]. Primary sources are firsthand written evidence of history made at the time of an event by a present person. Historians think of those sources as the closest to the origin of the information or idea under study.<ref name="primary source guide">{{cite web|last=User Education Services|title=Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources|url=http://www.lib.umd.edu/ues/guides/primary-sources|publisher=University of Maryland Libraries|accessdate=10 Jul 2013}}</ref><ref>[http://www.library.jcu.edu.au/LibraryGuides/primsrcs.shtml "Library Guides: Primary, secondary and tertiary sources"]</ref> These types of sources can provide researchers with, as Dalton and Charnigo put it, "direct, unmediated information about the object of study."<ref>{{Cite journal

}}</ref>

Historians use other types of sources to understand history as well. [[Secondary source]]s are written accounts of history based upon the evidence from primary sources. These are sources which, usually, are accounts, works, or research that analyze, assimilate, evaluate, interpret, and/or synthesize primary sources. [[Tertiary source]]s are compilations based upon primary and secondary sources and often tell a more generalized account built on the more specific research found in the first two types of sources.<ref name="primary source guide" /><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.lib.odu.edu/libassist/tutorials/nursing/glossary.html | title=Glossary, Using Information Resources}} ("Tertiary Source" is defined as "reference material that synthesizes work already reported in primary or secondary sources")</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.library.jcu.edu.au/LibraryGuides/primsrcs.shtml | title=Library Guides: Primary, secondary and tertiary sources}}</ref>

* [[List of historians]]

{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==

* {{cite book | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=5Zr9_3shoQQC&printsec=frontcover | title=The 50 Most Significant Individuals in Recorded History | publisher=Inklings Press | author=Russo, Stan | year=2005 | isbn=0975912992}}

* [http://www.ancientscripts.com/ More on ancient scripts] at Ancientscripts.com

[[Category:History of writing]]