**1. Historical Development:**
– Recorded history began in the 4th millennium BC with the invention of writing.
– Prehistory ended with the emergence of writing systems.
– Protohistory served as a transition between prehistory and history.
– Early civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia provided the foundation for historical accounts.
– Various regions have different historical periods considered as recorded history.
**2. Notable Historical Figures and Texts:**
– Herodotus and Thucydides made significant contributions to historical methodology in Europe.
– Saint Augustine influenced Christian historical thought during the medieval period.
– Chinese historians like Sima Qian laid the groundwork for professional historical writing.
– The Mahavamsa is a prominent historical text in South Asia, providing insights into the region’s history.
– The Sangam literature offers valuable information on ancient South Indian culture and historical events.
**3. Historical Texts and Literature:**
– The Mahavamsa, Culavamsa, and Dipavamsa offer a continuous historical record of Sri Lanka.
– The Sangam literature provides details on Tamil kings, religious beliefs, and historical incidents.
– Specific poems like Ainkurunuru and Pattinappalai offer insights into ancient Tamil life.
– Megasthenes’ Indica provides an account of Mauryan India.
– Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah revolutionized historiography in West Asia.
**4. Methods of Recording History:**
– History can be recorded through various means like photography, audio recordings, and video recordings.
– Internet archives play a crucial role in documenting online history.
– Oral history has been preserved through analogue and digital recordings.
– Written records remain a dominant form of historical documentation and interpretation.
– New technologies continuously influence the collection and preservation of historical information.
**5. Importance and Methods of Historical Research:**
– Recorded history enables the study and analysis of past events.
– Historical records provide insights into societal norms, values, and cultural developments.
– Historical research involves analyzing primary and secondary sources critically.
– The historical method guides historians in constructing accurate and comprehensive narratives.
– Historical documentation has evolved from oral traditions to digital archives, adapting to new technologies for preservation and accessibility.
Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world history, recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC, and it coincides with the invention of writing.
For some geographic regions or cultures, written history is limited to a relatively recent period in human history because of the limited use of written records. Moreover, human cultures do not always record all of the information which is considered relevant by later historians, such as the full impact of natural disasters or the names of individuals. Recorded history for particular types of information is therefore limited based on the types of records kept. Because of this, recorded history in different contexts may refer to different periods of time depending on the topic.
The interpretation of recorded history often relies on historical method, or the set of techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write accounts of the past. The question of what constitutes history, and whether there is an effective method for interpreting recorded history, is raised in the philosophy of history as a question of epistemology. The study of different historical methods is known as historiography, which focuses on examining how different interpreters of recorded history create different interpretations of historical evidence.