In history there are three principal source from which material is got from study; first Oral tradition, second Written sources, third Archeological sources.
- Oral tradition
This entails the stories told by aged persons to young persons. Such stories help people in the present to know what happened in the past. Oral history was the source of information that was used in societies was the culture of writing was not well developed.
The problem with this source of history is that;
- Some persons may tell lies
- They may hide part of the story
- They may exaggerate some facts
- They may forget much of the story
- Written history
These are made up of documents that can be rare. Such documents may be got in books, letters, inscriptions, official documents, diaries and news papers and in this recent time they can be got in the internet. This is the most reliable source of history.
Written history exists in two sources;
- Primary sources; it carries the story as it happened
- Secondary sources; it quotes the primary source for details.
The main problem of this source of history is that; some authors tell lies or exaggerate the fact of the story. In some cases, some parts of the story are omitted or left out.
- Archeological history
This source of history is perhaps the most difficult one to use in order to study the past. The skill of experts, especially archeologist is needed to make use of this source.
It involves the study of object that date from the past. It is also called dug up history. Examples of the artifacts which can be found include; weapons, pottery, carvings, or paintings. They are found in places such as caves, tombs and graves. Problems encountered when using the archeological source are:
- Some objects are deformed by earth movement.
- Some objects are deformed by climate
- Some objects are shifted as a result of soil erosion
- The dating of archeological sources are not as accurate as that of written sources
N.B.; for reasons of clarity of time and periods, some names have been given for some times, theses are;
- Ten years= a decade
- A hundred years= century
- A thousand years= a millennium (plural millennia)
