Primary sources are original records of the political, economic, artistic, scientific, social, and intellectual thoughts and achievements of specific historical periods. Produced by the people who participated in and witnessed the past, primary sources offer a variety of points of view and perspectives of events, issues, people, and places. These records can be found anywhere - in a home, a government archive, etc. The important thing to remember is they were used or created by someone with firsthand experience of an event.
Examples of Primary Sources:
Primary sources are not just documents and written records. There are many different kinds of primary sources, including: first-person accounts, documents, physical artifacts, scientific data that has been collected but not interpreted, and face-to-face mentors with specific knowledge or expertise. Primary sources also take a variety of formats, examples of these are listed below.
Audio—oral histories or memoirs, interviews, music
Images—photographs, videos, film, fine art
Objects—clothing (fashion or uniforms), tools, pottery, gravestones, inventions, weapons, memorabilia
Statistics—census data, population statistics, weather records
Text—letters, diaries, original documents, legal agreements, treaties, maps, laws, advertisements, recipes, genealogical information, sermons/lectures
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, 2011
A secondary source of information is one that was created later by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. For the purposes of a historical research project, secondary sources are generally textbooks and articles. Also included would be reference sources like encyclopedias.
For secondary sources, often the best sources are those that have been published most recently. If you use a secondary source that was published long ago, it is important to know what other authors have written on the topic and what criticism they have made about the earlier work or its approach to the topic.
University of Illinois, 2005-2006
RELATIVE DATING TECHNIQUES
These methods cannot reveal exactly how old something is, it can just reveal whether it is older or younger than something else.
Statigraphy
Stratigraphy is the study of the layers in rock. Geologists and other scientists use stratigraphy to learn about Earth's history, including weather patterns, climate changes, and disasters such as earthquakes.
Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015.
Fluorine Dating
Fluorine dating is a method of determining the relative age of fossil bones found in the same excavation by comparing their fluorine content. The more fluorine the bone has in it, the older the bone is.
Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015.
ABSOLUTE DATING TECHNIQUES
These methods are used to reveal the actual age of something.
Radiocarbon dating
One method that scientists use to date ancient fossils and artifacts is called radiocarbon dating. All living things on Earth are made up of a high percentage of an element called carbon. Carbon combines with other elements in complex ways to form the molecules that make up our bodies. Most carbon on Earth is not radioactive, but a very small percentage is. Thus, as living things take in carbon, they inevitably will take up a small amount of radioactive carbon into their bodies.
KidsKnowIt, 2016.
Dendochronology
This is also known as tree ring dating. It is based on the fact that trees usually produce one growth ring each year. Narrow rings grow in cold or dry years, and wide rings grow in warm or wet years. The rings form a distinctive pattern, which is the same for all members in a given species and geographical area. Thus, the growth pattern of a tree of a known age can be used as a standard to determine the age of similar trees.
Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015.