One often learns what happened in the past in History class. But what about learning about what happened in the past about learning about what happened in the past? This post will examine the ancient study of history.
The earliest recorded pieces of writing are receipts for cattle, wheat, etc. These record history: ergo, they could be considered historical. However, what happens when paste events are recorded to be actively studied? To do this, we have to go back to the Greeks. There were other historical authors before the Greeks, but they really brought the medium into its own, and the first recorded historians were all Greeks. An important figure in this movement was Herodotus. Herodotus approached history methodically, and made the first attempt to separate more and less accurate sources. By doing this, Herodotus began the idea of using reputable sources to back up one's writing, which continues to this very day. Thus, Herodotus kickstarted our study of history by crediting sources and writing analytically about past events.
I thought you brought up a very interesting point, about studying how people in the past recorded history. I never really thought about how the we study in OUR class studied their own history.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point.
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