2nd Lecture note

Historical Sources
In historical study, present of research writing is most important.
Historians need to get interpret the past, they must first establish the facts about event they are
studding. Historian look for the evidences by researching many documents and records. Called
historical sources.
Not only historians but also researchers needs to more evidence or facts for develop his/her idea.
Especially in history there are two kinds of sources.
1. Literature
2. Archeological
1. Literature Sources
Literature sources are dividing in to two groups.
1. Primary literature sources
2. Secondary literature sources.
Primary sources are account written by people involved in the events, and include governments
and legal papers, maps, business agreements, letters, records.
The chronicles are very important primary sources for study history.
Example for Sri Lankan Chronicles, Deepawamsa (1st chronicle in Sri Lankan history) and
Mahawamsa
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called original source or
evidence) is an artifact, a document, a recording, or other source of information that was created
at the time under study.

Secondary literature sources.

Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources. In addition, it is writing recodes,
articles, texts or books and research build upon primary sources.
A secondary source may also be a primary source and may depend on how it is used. "Primary"
and "secondary" are relative terms, with sources judged primary or secondary according to specific
historical contexts and what is being studied.
2. Archeological Sources
Example for archeological evidence, ruins city, inscription (it is writing method on rock, cave sites
or stone slabs) coins, monumental remains, paintings.
Archaeology
Archaeology is the study of the past by finding the remains left by people who lived in the past.
The study of archaeology not only helps us understand diversity in the world around us, it helps
us to understand how people relate to the material world and their evolution.
Sometime archaeologists find the bones of dead people and the things they used, or the houses
they lived in. Archaeologists think it is important to understand the past, because so many people
use the past to know where they come from.