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Ask who made a source, whether they were there at the time, and what they wanted it for — and tell a primary source from a secondary one.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
By the end of this lesson you can say who made a source, when they made it and why they bothered, and explain how those three answers change what the source is good for. You will also be able to tell a source made at the time from a passage written about it later — including the one you are about to read, which was written by us.
This passage is not old. Nobody from long ago wrote it. We wrote it at the school, out of what people who study the past have dug up, read and published. That makes it a secondary source: it tells you about the past second-hand. The things it tells you about — the clay tablets — are the sources it rests on.
Thousands of years ago, in the land between two rivers that is now mostly Iraq, people wrote by pressing the cut end of a reed into a lump of soft clay. The reed left small wedge-shaped marks. When the clay dried it went hard, and the marks stayed in it. Archaeologists have since dug up a great many of these tablets, and museums keep them today.
Most of the tablets that have been found are not stories or poems. They are records. How much grain went into a store. How many sheep. Who owed what to whom. How many workers were given food. Somebody was keeping count, and the tablet was how they remembered.
A tablet that lists sacks of grain is good evidence that somebody was counting sacks of grain. It is not evidence about what those people found funny, or what they were afraid of, because nobody wrote that on it. When you meet a source, the useful question is not only "is it true?" but "what is it evidence for?"
Notice something about those tablets and about Bel's made-up list in Ashfield. Both are lists. Both were written by somebody who was counting, so that they would remember. A very long time apart, and the same reason for picking something up to write with.
In the last lesson you learned to point at the line that says something, and to answer "this source does not say" when there is no such line. Now you find out why a source is silent about so much: because the person who made it was busy doing something else.
A source made at the time, by somebody who was there, is a primary source: a clay tablet, Bel's list, a photograph. A source written later, by somebody working from primary sources, is a secondary source: a history book, a museum label, the passage you have just read. Neither one is better. The purpose of a source is the reason the person made it, and it is usually a small, practical reason about that week.
Nothing from the past made itself. Somebody picked up a reed, or a pen, or a camera, and they did it for a reason of their own — and their reason almost never had anything to do with you.
The person pressing sacks of grain into wet clay was not writing to tell us about her city. She was writing so that the store would come out right at the end of the month. That is exactly why the tablet counts grain so carefully and says nothing about what the city smelled like.
So, three questions, every time. Who made it? When — at the time, or long afterwards? Why — what were they trying to get done?
Another way: picture
Picture a small label pinned to every source: a name, a date, and one line saying what it was for. "Bel — the evening of the fair — so she would remember what she sold." A great deal of history is reading the label before reading the source.
Another way: steps
Ask in this order. One: who is holding the pen? Two: were they there, or are they telling us about it afterwards? Three: what did they want to happen when they wrote it? Only then read what it says.
A source is not spoiled by having a purpose; every source has one. And a secondary source is not a worse source, only a different one. The real mistake is forgetting to ask, and then reading a shop's account book as though somebody had sat down to explain their whole life in it.
Who made it? Somebody working for a store, pressing marks into wet clay.
The maker's job tells you what they were paying attention to.
When? At the time, while the sacks were going in. So it is a primary source.
Nobody stands between the tablet and the day it records.
Why? To keep the count right. So it is careful about numbers and silent about everything else.
The purpose predicts both what is on it and what is missing.
Who made it? We did, at the school, out of what other people have found and published.
The passage says so in its own first paragraph.
When? Now, thousands of years after the tablets. So it is a secondary source.
Nobody who wrote it was there.
Why? To teach you. That is a purpose too, and it is why the passage explains things a person counting grain would never explain.
Here is a made-up Ashfield notebook — Ashfield is an invented village. Mark the one line that tells you who wrote this note and when.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
The passage about writing on clay is at the top of this lesson. Three questions: who wrote the passage, what that makes it, and why the tablets were made in the first place.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
Match each source to the person who made it.
| Ana, who marks who is in the room | Tomás, who is nine and was at the fair | somebody at the museum, long after the tablet was made | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A made-up school register from Ashfield | |||
| A made-up note about the Ashfield fair | |||
| A museum label beside a clay tablet |
A made-up shop list from Ashfield: what Bel sold, written at the end of a day. Why was it made?
Nobody has signed any of these, and you can still say who made each one. Match each source to the person who must have made it.
| the driver who hit the car | the people who paid for the tree | whoever is cooking in the cafe that day | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A made-up card left under a windscreen wiper: Sorry, I touched your car while I was parking. Please ring me. | |||
| A made-up label tied to a young tree in a park: Planted in memory of a much-loved teacher. | |||
| A made-up board outside a cafe: Soup today, carrot. Two pounds a bowl. |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Here is a made-up Ashfield notebook — Ashfield is an invented village. Mark the one line that tells you who wrote this note and when.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
You can ask who made a source, whether they were there when it happened, and what they wanted it for, and you can tell a primary source from a secondary one. Say those three answers out loud about the last thing you read today, even if it was only a sign.