History is the study of the past on the basis of sources. A historian cannot see the past with his own eyes: events are reconstructed from excavated objects, ancient inscriptions, chronicles and folklore. So every piece of historical knowledge rests on a source. The second basic skill is chronology: placing events correctly on the time line, working out centuries and millennia and calculating the time between two dates. Almost every exam paper asks you to classify sources, work out centuries and millennia and put dates in order. This lesson builds these skills step by step.
§1. Types of historical source
A historical source is anything left from the past that tells us about it.
Material sources: tools, pottery, weapons, ornaments, building remains and coins. Archaeology studies them through excavation.
Written sources: inscriptions on stone, leather, pottery and paper; chronicles, decrees, letters, travel accounts and memoirs.
Oral sources: legends, traditions, epics, songs and proverbs — the people’s memory (for example the epic “Alpamysh”).
Ethnographic sources: customs, rituals, clothing and household objects.
Linguistic sources: place names and personal names, the origins of words (for example town names ending in “-kent” or “-kat”).
Visual sources: rock art, murals, miniatures and, later, photographs.
Sources are primary (created by a contemporary of the event) or secondary (written later on the basis of other sources, such as a textbook).
Important written sources on Central Asian history:
The Avesta — the holy book of the Zoroastrians, the oldest written source on Central Asia
The Behistun inscription — from the time of Darius I (6th century BC), naming Bactria, Sogdiana and Khwarezm
Also important are Herodotus’s “Histories”, Arrian’s account of Alexander’s campaigns, Chinese chronicles, the works of Arab geographers and historians (al-Tabari, Narshakhi’s “History of Bukhara”) and later the “Zafarnamas” and the “Baburnama”.
§2. Auxiliary historical disciplines
Archaeology — studies material sources through excavation.
Numismatics — coins: the ruler’s name, place and year of minting, money circulation.
Epigraphy — inscriptions on stone, metal and pottery.
Palaeography — reading and dating old handwriting and manuscripts.
Ethnography — the way of life and culture of peoples.
Chronology — systems of reckoning time and dating events.
Toponymy — the origins of place names.
Heraldry and sigillography — coats of arms and seals.
Each auxiliary discipline studies its own kind of source: coin — numismatics, inscription — epigraphy, manuscript — palaeography
§3. Chronology: centuries and millennia
Century = the number of hundreds in the year + 1 (if the year is not exactly divisible by 100)
1405 → 14 + 1 = 15th century.
1900 is the last year of the 19th century; 1901 is the first year of the 20th. A year exactly divisible by 100 is the last year of a century: 1900 → 19th century.
329 BC → 4th century BC (the same rule: 3 + 1 = 4).
Parts of a century: first half (years 01–50), second half (51–100), a quarter — 25 years (first quarter: 01–25), a decade (for example “the 1920s” — 1920–1929).
BC dates count backwards: 530 BC came before 329 BC. The larger the number, the older the event. A BC century begins at the larger number and ends at the smaller: the 4th century BC runs from 400 to 301.
§4. Calculating the time between two dates
Both dates AD: larger minus smaller. From 1370 to 1405: 1405 − 1370 = 35 years.
Both dates BC: larger number minus smaller. From 530 BC to 329 BC: 530 − 329 = 201 years.
One BC, one AD: a + b − 1 (because there is no year zero: 1 BC is followed directly by AD 1).
Time between a BC and an AD date: a + b − 1
§5. Calendars
The Gregorian calendar (AD) counts from the year traditionally taken as the birth of Jesus; it is solar, with 365 days (366 in a leap year). The Gregorian reform took place in 1582.
The Hijri calendar counts from 622 (the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina); it is lunar, with a year of about 354 days, so a Hijri year is about 11 days shorter.
Muchal is the 12-year animal cycle (mouse, cow, tiger and so on), widespread among Turkic peoples.
In ancient Central Asia the year began at Navruz (21 March, the spring equinox).
Chronology helps convert dates in ancient sources into the modern calendar.
§6. Steps in working with a source
Identify the type: material, written, oral and so on; primary or secondary.
Identify author and time: who made it, when and where?
Read the content: what facts does it give?
Judge its reliability: did the author see the events, what was his interest, does it agree with other sources?
Draw a conclusion: which question does the source answer?
Worked example
“Which discipline identified a ruler’s name from the inscription on a coin?”
The source is a coin — a material source.
The discipline devoted to coins is numismatics.
Epigraphy deals with inscriptions in general, but coins belong to numismatics.
Answer: numismatics.
Worked example
How many years passed between the revolt of Spitamenes (329 BC) and Genghis Khan’s invasion of Central Asia (1219)?
One date BC, one AD → formula a + b − 1.
Substitute: 329 + 1219 − 1.
Calculate: 1547 years.
Worked example
Chronology and centuries: “Order the events and give the century of each: the death of Amir Temur (1405); the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC); the Hijra (622); the Battle of Talas (751).”