Chronology

Put the ages in order

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Today we are living in the...

• Contemporary age

• Modern Age

• Now Age

Human history can also be divided into Prehistory and History. History starts with the...

• Roman Empire

• invention of writing

• invention of agriculture

​ (a)   is the study of exactly ​ (b)   things happened.
When historians put events in chronological order they put them in the order in which they ​ (c)   .
Chronology is important to historians, but history is more than just chronology. Historians do need to know the right order of ​ (d)   but they also need to discover the causes and ​ (e)   , the relationships among the facts and events, not only which ones happened first.

• Chronology
• events
• consequences
• when
• happened

The traditional historical timeline is divided into different ages.

Important events mark the beginning and end of Ages.

For example, the Paleolithic starts with the appearance of the first human beings.

The Neolithic starts with the ​​ ​ ​ (a)  

The Ancient Age starts with the ​ (b)  

The Middle Ages starts with the ​ ​​ (c)   in the year 476.

The Modern Age starts with the ​ ​ (d)   in the year 1492.

The Contemporary Age starts with ​ (e)   in the year 1789.

• fall of the Western Roman Empire
• arrival of Columbus to America
• the French Revolution
• beginning of agriculture
• invention of writing

Before and After

History is commonly divided into two parts: B.C. and A.D.

B.C. stands for ​ (a)   while A.D. stands for the Latin phrase ​ (b)   which means 'In the year of our Lord.' That’s because many years ago historians decided ​ (c)   birth was important enough to divide History in these ​ two periods.

So if you read that something happened in 200 B.C., you know that it happened 200 years ​ (d)   the birth of Christ.

Here you may realize that years are counted backwards. So the bigger the number, when the date is BC, the ​ (e)   in history it happened.

• 'Before Christ'
• 'Anno Domini'
• Christ’s
• earlier
• before

Is it possible to study societies that did not have a written system?

• No! There aren't written sources available to study.

• Yes! There are non written sources that may be used to trace the past of those societies

• It's not a problem as all societies had a written system.

We say that periodization is arbitrary because the past can be divided into other periods, taking into account other events. Can you propose a timeline dividing the past into two new periods?

Complete 3 blue boxes with information you decide/create