How do we know about the past?
Nobody alive today saw the Stone Age. So how do we know how people lived? We study historical sources: everything that gives us information about the past. There are four types.
Objects and remains: tools, hand axes, pottery, bones, buildings, coins…
Anything written: clay tablets, books, letters, newspapers. They only exist after writing was invented, so Prehistory has none!
Images: cave paintings, drawings, maps, photos and films.
What people tell us: stories, songs and memories. Your grandparents are an oral source!
The detectives of the past
They dig carefully in the ground to find the remains of ancient people: tools, houses, bones. They work at a site called an excavation.
They study all the sources and explain what happened in the past and why.
Prehistory has no written sources, so almost everything we know about it comes from material and visual sources found by archaeologists: stone tools, bones, the remains of huts and cave paintings.