History Detectives: How Do We Know About the Past?

Imagine you come home and find muddy boots by the door, a wet umbrella, and a half-eaten sandwich on the table. Nobody is in the room — but you can still work out what happened, right? You used clues. Historians do exactly the same thing, except their clues are hundreds or even thousands of years old. They are called history detectives, and today you become one too.

Historians are people who study the past. But nobody was alive thousands of years ago to write it all down for us — so how do historians know what really happened? They look for evidence. Evidence is anything left behind from the past that gives us information. Evidence comes in two main types. A primary source is something made or written at the time the event happened. It is a first-hand clue. Examples include: a clay pot made in ancient Egypt, a letter written by a Roman soldier, a photograph taken in 1900, or a coin stamped with a king's face. Because these things were made during the event, they give us direct evidence. A secondary source is something created later by someone who was not there. Examples include: a history textbook, a documentary film, or a museum display. Secondary sources use primary sources to tell the story — they are like detectives who have already done some of the work for you. Historians ask four key detective questions about every piece of evidence: 1. What is it? (A pot? A diary? A painting?) 2. Who made it, and when? 3. Why was it made? 4. What does it tell us — and what might it be hiding? That last question is really important. Evidence can be biased. Biased means one-sided — it only shows one point of view. For example, a king's diary might say he was always kind and brave, but other evidence might tell a different story. Good historians check several sources before they decide what probably happened. Evidence can also be an artefact (an object made by people, like a tool or a piece of jewellery), a written document (like a scroll or a census list), or an oral history (stories passed down by speaking, not writing — very common in many African, Indigenous, and Asian cultures). All of these count as valid clues.