Thinking Like a Historian

What is Prehistory?

• The time period before humans farmed and raised animals
• The history of the earth before humans
• The period of time before there were written records
  The period of time before there were written records
• The period of time also known as "ancient" history

Most of the information we know about prehistory comes from where

• archaeology
• anthropology
• historians
• the History Channel

Prehistorical "periods" or divisions of time are best represented by

• Carbon-14 dating
• paintings and pottery that have survived
• radioactivity found in organic material
• soil layers that stack up and bury older civilizations

Archaeologists can measure the disappearance of radioactivity in organic material through a process called 

• working hypothesis
• soil layer excavation
• Carbon-14 dating

Carbon-14 dating can effectively

• help date an entire soil layer
• help find lonely singles a soul-mate
• help date inorganic material not found within unique soil layers

Objects found within soil layers and results of Carbon-14 dating would be considered what to a historian?

• a hypothesis
• evidence
• reasoned guesses
• prehistory

Something that the evidence alone proves beyond a reasonable doubt

• supposition
• inference
• fact

Something that actually is logical guesswork.  Something purely hypothetical but may be worthy of further investigation

• fact
• supposition
• inference

Something that the evidence does not prove but seems to indicate.  An assumption based on evidence that could be reasonably challenged

• fact
• inference
• supposition

Mr. Aronson loves history

• fact
• inference
• suppostion