F.1 history Test(ten marks)

C1 What is history?
- A usually chronological record of events, as of the life or development of a people or institution, often including an explanation of or commentary on those events.
- A formal written account of related natural phenomena.
- A record of a patient's medical background.
- An established record or pattern of behavior
- The branch of knowledge that records and analyzes past events: “History has a long-range perspective” (Elizabeth Gurley Flynn).
- The past events relating to a particular thing:
- The aggregate of past events or human affairs．
- An interesting past: a house with history.
- Something that belongs to the past．
- A drama based on historical events．
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C2 Why should we study history?
History is the study of events in time, in relation to humanity. It is divided into and encompasses many sub and ancillary fields, such as chronology, historiography, genealogy, paleography, and cliometrics. History can give light on the past.
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C3 How do we study history?
Traditionally, the study of the past using mainly documentary sources created by or about the society under scrutiny. Inevitably such investigations concentrated on societies where writing had been adopted.
In preliterate societies, the accounts of the past are related orally, and many cultures have produced intricate and sophisticated oral histories. African peoples have long relied on oral histories to learn about their past. Starting with the medieval Islamic kingdoms of Africa some of these oral chronicles were recorded in Arabic, and sub-Saharan Africa developed its own written histories. In the 1550s the Popol Vuh, an elaborate account of the history and mythology of the Quiché people in Mexico, was recorded in Spanish.
In the older civilizations, as in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China, historical records appear immediately after the appearance of writing, for conquering kings wished to record their triumphs for all posterity. There was also some interest in the remote past, particularly genealogical interest in the glorification of royal ancestors and their achievements.

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C4 How did people live during the Stone Age?
Around 2 million years before present, Homo habilis is believed to have constructed first man-made structure in East Africa, consisting of simple arrangements of stones to hold branches of trees in position. A similar stone circular arrangement believed to be around 500,000 years old was discovered at Terra Amata, near Nice (France). Several human habitats dating back to the Stone Age have been discovered in different parts of the earth, including:
- A tent-like structure inside a cave near the Grotte du Lazaret, Nice, France.
- A structure with roof supported with timber, discovered in Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia, dates to around 23,000 BCE. The walls were made of packed clay blocks and stones.
- Many huts made of mammoth bones were found in Eastern Europe and Siberia. The people who made these huts were specialised mammoth hunters. Examples have been found along the Dniepr river valley of Ukraine, including near Chernihiv, in Moravia (in the Czech Republic) and in southern Poland.
- An animal hide tent dated to around 15,000 to 10,000 BCE (in the Magdalenian) was discovered at Plateau Parain, France.
- Megalithic tombs, multi-chambered, and dolmens, single-chambered, were graves with a huge stone slab stacked over other similarly large stone slabs. They have been discovered all across Europe and Asia, and were built in the Neolithic. Several tombs with copper and bronze tools have also been discovered, illustrating the problems of attempting to define periods based on technology.
I hope this can help with your understanding. =)