Grade 6 History and Government Vocabulary

Key terms and definitions covering forms of government, historical time periods, and methods of historical study.

Artefact

A man-made object of archaeological or historical interest, for e.g. Pot /weapons.

Decade

A period of $10$ years.

Century

A period of $100$ years.

Milennium

A period of $1000$ years.

AD

Anno Domini - in the year of our Lord.

CE

Common Era.

BC

Before Christ.

BCE

Before Common Era.

History

The study of the past, people, places and events.

Chronological

A record of events following the order in which they occurred.

Timeline

A graphical representation of a period of time, on which important events are marked in chronological order.

Historian

An expert in the study of History.

Civilization

People living together in an organised way.

Primary Source

Something created at or extremely near the time of the historical events it describes. These can include handwritten documents, printed texts, paintings, photographs, and physical artefacts.

Secondary Source

Any item that was created after the time of the historical event, which describes or is related to someone who was not directly involved in the events.

Sources

Information about the past, which can include visual sources, written sources, objects, and oral sources.

Fact

Something that is known to be true and has evidence to support it.

Opinion

A person’s thoughts on something that are not based on fact.

Bias

A preference or an inclination; judging something based on what you think and not how it actually is, e.g. Racial bias, gender bias.

Dark Ages or Middle Ages

The time before the Renaissance where a lot of what was learnt from Greek and Roman civilisations was lost.

Renaissance

Means rebirth; the coming out of the dark. Occurring from the $14^{th}$ to $17^{th}$ Century (Europe), it involved a revival of learning in the arts, music, science and education.

Heresy

To go against the rules of the Church.