Recorded history

Recorded history, also called written history, is about events that people have written down or otherwise documented. Historians study these written records to learn about the past. For the whole world, recorded history starts with the ancient world around the 4th millennium BCE, which is when people first began to write.

In some places or cultures, written history only goes back a short time because they did not always keep written records. Even when records exist, they might not include everything that later historians think is important, like the full effects of natural disasters or the names of ordinary people.

Historians use special ways to study these written records, called the historical method. They look at primary sources and other evidence to research and write about what happened in the past. The philosophy of history asks questions about what history really is and how we can understand it properly. The study of how different people interpret history is called historiography.

Prehistory

Further information: History of writing

Prehistory is the time before we had written records. It ends when people first started to write things down. During prehistory, there were no written records in some places, or we cannot read the writing that existed.

Protohistory is the time between prehistory and history. It starts when people begin to learn how to read and write, but ends before the first historians started writing about events. Sometimes, protohistory also means the time when a culture or civilization had not yet created its own writing, but others wrote about them.

Before full writing, there were signs and symbols called proto-writing. Examples include the Jiahu symbols (around 6600 BCE), Vinča signs (around 5300 BCE), early Indus script (around 3500 BCE) and Nsibidi script (before 500 CE). People do not always agree on when prehistory ended and history began, or when proto-writing became real writing.

The first true writing systems appeared around the same time as the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic during the late 4th millennium BCE. The Sumerian cuneiform script and Egyptian hieroglyphs are thought to be the earliest writing systems. They developed from earlier symbols between 3400 and 3200 BCE, with the earliest clear writings dating to about 2600 BCE.

Historical accounts

Main article: Historiography – The history of written history

The earliest records of history come from ancient civilizations like Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Sumerians, beginning around 3500 BCE. These early accounts often told stories about leaders and events, and many were rediscovered through archaeological digs. Different cultures developed their own ways of telling and understanding these ancient stories.

In Europe, early historians like Herodotus and Thucydides wrote about their times. Herodotus is often called the "father of history" for his detailed accounts, while Thucydides focused more on understanding causes and effects of events. Later, historians in Europe began to study the past with more careful methods, especially from the 17th century onward.

In East Asia, important historical texts include the Zuo Zhuan, Book of Documents, and Spring and Autumn Annals. Sima Qian wrote the Records of the Grand Historian, a major work that covered many years of Chinese history and included stories of both famous and ordinary people.

In South Asia, the Mahavamsa is an ancient text from Sri Lanka that records the island's history over many centuries. It was written by Buddhist monks and combines earlier stories into one big account. Other texts, like the Dipavamsa and Culavamsa, also help us understand the past of the region.

In West Asia, Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddimah, where he discussed how to study history carefully and avoid common mistakes. His work helped develop better ways to understand the past.

Methods of recording history

Recorded history started when people began writing things down, but now we have many other ways to keep track of the past. We can use photography to take pictures, audio recordings to capture sounds, and video recordings to save moving images. Today, Internet archives also save copies of websites to show how the Internet has changed over time. In addition to these, people have also tried to save oral history — stories told by word of mouth — by recording them. In the past, this was done using analogue recording like cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes. Now, we can use digital recordings saved on compact disks.

Even with all these new tools, written records are still very important for understanding history. This is partly because there are more written records available, and partly because historians are used to studying and sharing information in this way.

Historical method

The historical method is the way historians study and write about the past. They use primary sources, which are first-hand accounts or evidence created at the time of an event. These sources give historians the most direct information about what happened.

Historians also use secondary sources, which are written by people who were not there when the events happened. These sources look at and explain the primary sources. Finally, tertiary sources are collections of information based on both primary and secondary sources, giving a more general overview of a topic.