What Is History? Chapter 1, Lesson 1 http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/movies/flash_large.php

“What would have happened if….” Why Study History? History: The study of the people and events of the past. Historians study history and examine the causes that something happened in the past and the effect of these events. Common questions include: -“ What happened?” - “Why did it happen?” -“How did things change?” - “How has it influenced today?” “What would have happened if….”

History helps us understand why things are the way they are today….. The wheel is invented during prehistoric times. The wheel is used to create horse-drawn carts. Horse drawn carts led the way for the creation of the automobile. Knowing about the past will help us make decisions about the future.

Measuring Time In order to help understand history, historians must first identify WHEN things happened. This can be done by measuring and labeling time. We can measure time by labeling groups of years. Eras: Large blocks of time marked by great events or developments. Millennium: 10 centuries (1,000 years) Century: 100 years Decade: 10 years Period 3 – 5 - 8/23/17

Eras Prehistory: the time before people developed writing. Ancient History: Around 3,500 B.C. - A.D. 500 Middle Ages (Medieval Period) : A.D. 500- A.D. 1400 Modern History: A.D. 1400- present day.

Calendars Calendar: A system for arranging days in order. There are about 40 different calendars that have been developed thus far. Different cultures have developed calendars based on their needs. For example: A.) The Chinese and Jewish calendar are based on the appearance of the “ new moon”.

Julian Calendar Developed by Julius Caesar (Roman Ruler) around 46 BC The calendar begins counting years at the founding of the Roman Empire. A year on the calendar is 365 ¼ days long and is divided into 12 months. It includes a Leap Year every 4 years. The calendar was inaccurate in measuring time according to the solar year and lost several minutes every year. This would equal a loss of 1 day every 128 years.

Gregorian Calendar By 1582 A.D., the Julian calendar had lost about 10 days from inaccuracy. Pope Gregory XIII decided to create another calendar to ensure that the Easter holiday occurred during Spring. The new calendar: A.) began counting days from the birth of Jesus. B.) to realign the dates with the equinox, 10 days where “dropped” in October 1582. B.) although Leap Year in observed, no century will be a leap year unless it is divisible by 400, such as the years 1600 or 2000. This way, it would take thousands of years before we lost a year.

It took more than 3 centuries for the calendar to be recognized around the world. Today, most of the world uses this calendar with the exception of some religious calendars. For example: A.) The Jewish calendar begins 3,760 years before the Gregorian calendar. This is when they believe the world was created. B.) The Muslim calendar date their calendar from the time that the prophet Muhammad left the city of Makkah to go to Madinah. (622 A.D.)

Dating Events In the Gregorian calendar, the years before the birth of Jesus are known as “B.C.”, or “before Christ”. The years after are called “A.D” or “anno domini” (“in the year of the Lord.”) To date events before the birth of Jesus, (B.C) historians count backwards from A.D. 1. There is no year “0”. To date events after the birth of Jesus, (A.D.) , historians count forward, starting from A.D. 1.(pg. 7) To avoid a religious reference, many historians use the initials B.C.E. (“before the common era”) and C.E. (“common era”).

Timelines A timeline (like a calendar), is a way to track the passage of time. Timelines: A.) show the order of events within a period of time. B.) show the amount of time between events. C.) usually divided into even sections of time. D.) Events are plotted on a timeline at the date when it occurred.

Digging Up the Past Since the invention of writing, people have recorded important events. These writings are a record of the past. Prehistory historians must use science to help discover the secrets of the past. Archeology: the study of the past by looking at what people left behind. To discover these treasures, they dig into the earth of places where they believed people once lived. Artifacts: objects made by people such as tools, pottery, weapons and jewelry.

Paleontology: study fossils to learn what the world was like long ago. Fossils: The remains of plant and animal life that have been preserved from an earlier time. Anthropology: The study of human culture and how it develops over time. They study artifacts and fossils to look for clues about what people valued and believed.

LUCY Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual. She was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, Africa. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago. She was about 3 ½ feet tall and weighed about 60 lbs. She had long and arms short legs, but walked upright.