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History

Source: Kenoyer, 'Rock Art', p. 1227

History is the study of mankind's past, of events that have taken place in the human society and the factors directing and influencing them. A systematic study of the past helps understand the relationships between the present day events, and how things might shape up in the future.

People who make the study of history their profession are called historians.

To reconstruct the past as accurately as possible, historians depend upon historical sources (evidences left behind by earlier societies and people). These historical sources are in the form of tools and implements, carvings and paintings, inscriptions, sculpture, coins, ruins, manuscripts and historical texts.

History becomes fuzzier the deeper we look into the past because of the relative rarity of sources the further back we go in time due to their degradation or destruction over the ages. Moreover, maintaining records of events in an organised manner is a comparative recent development in human history.

Prehistory refers to that period of history before humans developed the art of writing.

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