| A | B |
|---|
| prehistory | history before writing |
| oral tradition | legends, myths, beliefs passed on by word of mouth |
| primary source | produced during the same time as the event |
| excavation | digging up the remains of the past |
| fossils | remains or imprints of plants and animals |
| written source | book, letter, poem |
| nonwritten source | art, jewelry, ceramic pot, painting |
| secondary source | created after the event based on an original source |
| artifacts | a human made object of historical importance |
| archaeology | the study of objects from the past |
| Archaeological Record | the artifacts, ruins, bones and fossils that archaeologists discover and study |
| scientific dating | analysis of ancient objects on a laboratory |
| dendrochronology | tree-ring counting |
| Pottery | an important tool in relative dating |
| relative dating | determining whether an ancient object is older or newer than other objects |
| cultural dating | A method of comparing objects with information they already have |
| absolute dating | archaeologists decide the age in years of an object |
| radiocarbon dating | measuring the carbon within an object to determine its age |
