📚 The Words Historians Use

What you’ll learn

1. Words for the PastUse the words source, evidence, artefact, and tell a primary source from a secondary source.Historians use special words. A source is anything that tells us about the past, evidence is the clues it gives, and an artefact is an object from long ago. A primary source was made at the time by someone present, like a diary; a secondary source was made later by someone studying the past, like a history book. Knowing these words helps you judge how much to trust what you read.
2. Telling Time Like a HistorianUse BC/BCE and AD/CE correctly and match time words like decade, century, and era.Historians split time around a starting point: BC (or BCE) for years before it, which count backwards, and AD (or CE) for years after. They measure time in chunks — a decade is 10 years, a century is 100 years, and an era or period is a long stretch with its own character. These words let you place events in time.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Library of Congress
• Britannica
• BBC Bitesize

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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