Timeline and Sources of History — Class 6 Social Science
Exploring Society: India and Beyond · Chapter 4
CBSE Class 6 community
View all
5- Mathematics
- Science
- + 3 more
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
- Space weighted by chapter size
- Charts from the book's own data
- Traps corrected
Chapter summary
Key ideas & terms
- History
- The study of the human past, reconstructed from many kinds of sources.
- Archaeologist
- A person who studies the past by digging up and examining remains such as tools, pots and bones.
- CE and BCE
- Common Era (formerly AD) for years after the conventional date of Jesus' birth, and Before Common Era (formerly BC) for years before it.
- Millennium
- A period of 1,000 years; specific millenniums are counted from the year 1 CE.
- Timeline
- A tool that arranges dates and events in order to show their sequence over a period.
- Source of history
- A place, person, text or object from which we gather information about the past.
Extra questions & answers
What is history?
History is the study of the human past, pieced together from many different sources.
What do archaeologists do?
Archaeologists study the past by digging up remains left behind by people, plants and animals, such as tools, pots, beads, bones and bricks.
What do CE and BCE stand for?
CE means Common Era (formerly AD) and BCE means Before Common Era (formerly BC).
Why is there a catch when counting years across BCE and CE?
Because the Gregorian calendar has no ‘year zero’, so you add the two dates and subtract one to find the years between them.
How long is a century and a millennium?
A century is 100 years and a millennium is 1,000 years.
Why is a timeline useful?
A timeline shows events in the order they happened, helping us understand the sequence of history even without remembering exact dates.
Name three kinds of sources of history.
Archaeological sources, literary sources and oral sources (others include inscriptions and artistic sources).
How long have modern humans (Homo sapiens) existed?
Modern humans have existed for about 300,000 years — a tiny fraction of the Earth's history.
How did early humans get their food?
They were hunter-gatherers, relying on hunting animals and gathering edible plants and fruits.
What changes followed the end of the last Ice Age?
People began settling down, cultivating cereals, domesticating animals, and forming villages that grew into towns with pottery and metal tools.
THINK ABOUT IT
What is the earliest memory you can recollect? Do you remember how old you were at that time? Those memories together are a part of your past, maybe going five or six years back.
This is a personal reflection. An example answer is: My earliest memory is playing in my grandparents’ courtyard when I was about three years old. Those early memories from five or six years ago are part of my personal past and help me understand how I have grown and changed.
How do you think understanding the past will help us understand the present world?
Understanding the past helps us understand why the present is the way it is. Past events, discoveries, cultures and decisions have shaped our languages, food, festivals, laws and technologies. By learning about the past we can understand continuity and change, avoid past mistakes and appreciate the reasons behind present customs and societies.
LET'S EXPLORE
Such calculations are simple, but there is a catch. In the Gregorian calendar, there is no ‘year zero’. The year 1 CE follows immediately the year 1 BCE. Draw a simple timeline marking every year from 2 BCE to 2 CE; you will see that because of the absence of a year zero, only 3 years have passed between those two dates.
A timeline for this period would show the years in order:
So to calculate the number of years between a BCE date and a CE date, you should add them but subtract 1 — in the above case, 2 + 2 – 1 = 3.
This is the rule for calculating across BCE and CE because there is no year zero. For any BCE year
Practice a few examples with your classmates. For example, to return to the question about the Buddha, suppose we are now in the year 2024 CE, then the Buddha was born 560 + 2024 – 1 = 2,583 years ago.
The Buddha’s approximate birth year is
DON'T MISS OUT
In the timeline given on pages 62 and 63 (Fig. 4.3), can you mark the beginning of the 8th millennium BCE? (Note: In English, the plural of ‘millennium’ is ‘millenniums’ or ‘millennia’; both are correct.)
The
LET'S EXPLORE
Create a timeline stretching from 1900 CE to the current year and place the dates of birth of your grandparents, parents, siblings and yourself. Also, mark the years that the 20th century CE begins with and ends with.
This is a personal activity. Draw a horizontal line from
LET'S EXPLORE
Can you collect information about at least three generations of your family on your mother’s and father’s sides? Create a family tree with your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Find out their names, what they did for a living and where they were born. Also, write the sources from where you got this information.
This is a personal project. Interview parents, grandparents and relatives and note their names, occupations and places of birth in a table or family tree. Sources can include oral memories of elders, family photographs, Aadhaar cards, school certificates, old letters or diaries. For example, you may list paternal grandparents with their names and farming or teaching occupations learned from your father’s account, and note the source as ‘oral information from father’.
How did you find details about your family’s past? Did you rely on things like photographs, diaries, ID cards or memories from your parents and relatives?
Most family history is collected from oral sources like memories of parents and grandparents, and from material sources like photographs, ID cards, birth certificates, school diaries and old letters. Talking to elders is usually the main source, supplemented by documents and photos preserved at home.
THINK ABOUT IT
Have you ever seen old coins, books, clothes, jewellery or utensils in and around your house? What type of information can we gain from such objects? Or from old houses or buildings?
Yes, old objects are sources of history. From coins we can learn about rulers, dates and economy. From clothes, jewellery and utensils we learn about materials, crafts, daily life and customs. Old books reveal language and knowledge, and old houses or buildings show architecture, materials and the way people lived. Together they give clues about family and community history.
LET'S EXPLORE
There are a few images of different sources of history on the next page. Who and what do you think the objects show? Write down in the boxes next to the images any information that you get from these objects.
This is an observation activity. For each image, look for clues: inscriptions on stone or copper plates show writing and royal orders, coins show kings and symbols, manuscripts show scripts and knowledge, sculptures or paintings show gods, people or stories, and excavated tools or pottery show daily life. Write what you see, like ‘This seal shows an animal and script from the Indus-Sarasvati civilisation and tells us about trade and writing’.
LET'S EXPLORE
In the above picture, look at some activities of early humans in a rock shelter. Which ones can you recognise? Give a brief description for each.
In the rock shelter picture you can recognise several hunter-gatherer activities: making stone tools by chipping stones, hunting animals with spears, gathering fruits and roots, making fire by rubbing stones, cooking food over fire, painting on rock walls with natural colours, making shelters, and making simple bead ornaments. People work in small bands and share tasks for survival.
LET'S EXPLORE
Observe the scene on the next page. It depicts an agricultural community from a few millenniums ago. List the main activities you can identify.
In the agricultural community scene you can identify: ploughing fields with wooden ploughs and cattle, sowing seeds, harvesting crops with sickles, threshing grain, storing grain in pots and granaries, tending domesticated animals like cattle and goats, making pottery, fetching water from the river, cooking and caring for children in huts, and exchanging produce within the village.
THINK ABOUT IT
Both in the earlier picture of a rock shelter and in this one, men and women are given certain roles. While they may appear to be ‘natural’, they are not necessarily accurate and do not cover all situations. For instance, in a rock shelter, women may have helped prepare colours for painting the rock or may have done some of the painting. In both scenes, men may have done some of the cooking or may have helped take care of children. Keeping in mind that we have only limited information, think about such roles and situations, and discuss in class.
This asks for discussion. The pictures show traditional divisions of work but they are not fixed or fully accurate. Evidence from archaeology suggests both men and women shared many tasks — hunting, gathering, tool-making, painting, cooking and child-rearing — depending on need and skill, not just gender. Since we have limited sources like tool marks and paintings, we should not assume strict roles and should consider that all members contributed to survival and community life.
Questions, activities and projects
1. As a project, write the history of your family (or village if you live in one), using sources of history at your disposal. Ask your teacher to guide you.
Choose your family or village. Collect oral sources by interviewing elders, and material sources like old photos, documents, houses and tools. Note names, occupations, migrations and important events over three generations. Arrange them chronologically and mention which source gave you each piece of information. Add a family tree or village map and write a short narrative of changes you observed.
2. Can we compare historians to detectives? Give reasons for your answers.
Yes, historians are like detectives. Detectives collect clues, examine evidence, check if sources confirm or contradict each other, and reconstruct what happened. Similarly, historians gather many sources — excavated objects, inscriptions, coins, texts, oral stories and scientific data — cross-check them, decide which source is more reliable when they differ, and piece together a picture of the past, even though some pieces may still be missing.
3. A few exercises with dates: Place these dates chronologically on the timeline: 323 CE, 323 BCE, 100 CE, 100 BCE, 1900 BCE, 1090 CE, 2024 CE.
In chronological order from earliest to latest:
3. A few exercises with dates: If King Chandragupta was born in 320 CE, which century did he belong to? And how many years was that after the Buddha’s birth?
The
3. A few exercises with dates: Rani of Jhansi was born in 1828. Which century did she belong to? How many years was that before India’s Independence?
The
3. A few exercises with dates: Turn ‘12,000 years ago’ into a date.
If today is
4. Plan a visit to a nearby museum: the visit should be prepared with some prior research on the kind of exhibits the museum holds. Keep notes during the visit. Write a brief report afterwards, highlighting what was unexpected / interesting / fun about the visit and the exhibits.
Before visiting, search the museum’s website or brochure to learn its focus — for example archaeological, historical or natural history exhibits. During the visit carry a notebook and note interesting objects like coins, statues, pottery or paintings, their dates and what they tell us. In your report describe the most interesting exhibit, what you learned about sources of history, and what surprised you, such as the size of a sculpture or the detail on ancient beads.
5. Invite to your school an archaeologist or a historian and ask them to speak on the history of your region and why it’s important to know it.
With your teacher’s help, invite a local historian or archaeologist. Prepare questions about your region’s ancient sites, sources found there like inscriptions or pottery, and how they interpret them. Listen to their talk about why local history helps us understand our heritage, identity and continuity, and write a summary of key points for your class.