Primary Sources

Primary sources are the first hand report or evidence of an event or time. Why would a primary source be important? It is the best resource you can use because it came straight from the event that had happened. The primary source that were looking at, the case study, has taught me about the painted caves of Ice Age Europe. The art in these caves are a primary source of our ancestors history that historians can use to figure out who they were. Why they did what they did and how they lived.

Historians have many different types of evidence available to them. For example; printed sources, archives, Oral testimony, and physical evidence. I think out of the examples, physical evidence is the most valuable source, because it is a source that is very reliable. The painted caves of Ice Age Europe are a great example of that. I would say the most problematic source that historians could have would be the archives and printed sources. I would say that they aren’t as reliable.

What questions should you ask yourself about evidence? The questions that I would ask are: Why is this evidence important? What does this evidence show me? Does this evidence teach me anything? The importance of asking these questions is to learn what to use the evidence for. Also, how we can learn from it.

This case study mainly focused on the art of the caves, but there any many other pieces of evidence out ancestors. For example fossils or stone tools. I am sure that there are many more examples of evidence. I would recommend looking at cave art as a primary source because it is a huge insight to our ancestors and I’m happy that I got to learn from this case study.