1. How is History Written?

2. More than just the hands on a clock
History is about
Time
More than just the hands on a clock
Evidence
Is it for real? Prove it.

3. How Do We Measure History?
Time in History

4. The Concept of Time What is time? How do we measure time?
Why is time important in History?
Why is the calendar useful? Why was it invented?

5. Chronology When we study History, we measure time not distance
We get the sequence of events in the correct order
If events are in the wrong order, their meaning can change enormously 5

6. What do you think happened?

7. What do you think the story would be if the order of events was changed?

8. Re-arrange this comic strip

9. History and Prehistory
Oldest part of history and does not have any written record is ‘prehistory’
We use artefacts to study prehistoric periods
It is divided into ‘ages’ named after what the people at that time made their tools from.

10. History and Prehistory
Stone Age – when man created tools from stone
Bronze Age – when humans began with the first widespread use of copper and bronze tools
Iron Age – Iron was used extensively and there was some evidence of written records

12. Periods in History
Historians also break up time into other ages like Golden Age, Elizabethan Age etc.
History is split into dynasties e.g Shang Dynasty. Gupta Dynasty etc.
Dynasty – period of rule by people from the same family group

13. Periods in History Periods - Dynasties Shang dynasty 1523-1027 BC Zhou
Qin
221-
206 BC
Han
202 BC-
AD 220

14. Counting the years
How do Historians decide where to start counting from?
AD – Anno Domini (In the year of our Lord)
Indicate anything that happened after Christ was born
Counted forward beginning with 1
Written AD1945 – but we don’t normally write like this
This year was One thousand nine hundred and forty-five years after the birth of Christ

15. Origins of A.D and B.C
About 1,500 years ago, there was a dispute within the Christian Church over how to date important events in church history.
The Pope asked a monk to develop a standard method. The monk decided to start with what he believed was the year Jesus Christ’s birth. This became year 1.
The years before Christ’s birth later became known as Before Christ, abbreviated B.C. The monk called the years after Christ’s birth anno Domini. These Latin words mean ‘in the year of the Lord’ and are abbreviated A.D.

16. Time Specific points BC - before Christ AD - Anno Domini
Century - a period of 100 years
The 2nd century AD lasted
from AD 101 to AD 200

17. Counting the years BC – Before Christ
We write the letter BC after the number e.g. 242 BC
Counted back from the birth of Christ e.g. Shang ruled China from 1500 BC to BC
Higher the date; earlier it had happened

18. There is no Year 0

19. Counting the years Han ruled China from 206 BC to AD 220
How long did they rule China?
206 years before Christ was born
220 years after
426 years altogether

20. Counting the years AD and BC are divided into smaller units
Biggest 1000 years – Millennium
So AD 1000 is 1000 years after Christ was born
Each millennium is divided into centuries
100 years – century
Each century is divided into decades
10 years – 1 decade
1945 is year 5 of the 4th decade of the 9th century of the 2nd millennium

21. The notation c, is short for circa which means ‘around’
The notation c, is short for circa which means ‘around’. We don’t know the exact year the event happened but we think it was probably around that time
Timeline
A jagged line means an interval is not represented BC
AD AD
Gupta Dynasty
(c. AD320 – 540)
Dates before AD 1 refer to the years before the birth of Jesus Christ
AD 1
The year Jesus Christ was born
Dates after AD 1 refer to the years after the birth of Jesus Christ

22. CE & BCE
Some countries have changed AD and BC to CE – Common Era and BCE – Before Common Era
To avoid the linkage to Christ but keeping the same dates
Assuming that our starting point is the YEAR ONE (there is no YEAR ZERO), then BCE, meaning "before common era" is the abbreviation used for years that occurred before the YEAR ONE. CE means "common era" and is used on all dates starting with YEAR ONE.

23. Writing
Sometimes, we omit the abbreviation CE if we are only talking about modern history--no one would say that Barack Obama was elected in the year 2008 CE, although they could if they wanted to

24. Muslim System Muslim year has 12 months – all of 28 days
Significant event was when Prophet Mohammed was driven out of Mecca to Medina
This move was called hijrah and happened in the year AD 622

25. Muslim System AD 622 is 1 AH (After Hijrah)
Dates before Ad 622 is labelled BH (Before Hijrah)

26. Other dating systems
Other calendars are of the Chinese, Jewish and Indian origins
Some are used for religious purposes – not for historical recordings

27. Other dating systems
Imagine the confusion if everyone worked in a different system of time dating
How would this affect: business arrangements, school holidays, writing history textbooks etc.

28. Activity Time Century Years 5th century BC 500 - 401 BC 2nd century BC
11th century AD AD
15th century AD AD
21st century AD AD

29. Chronology Arrange these events in chronological order Dates Events A
1500 B.C
The Indus Valley Civilisation ended abruptly B
A.D 300
The Gupta Dynasty was established C
3000 B.C.
The original people settled in the Indus Valley D
185 B.C.
The Mauryan Dynasty collapsed E
A.D. 376 to 415
King Chandragupta II ruled India