Today in Objects as History class, we explored the development of objects through the prehistoric period along with Vedant Sir. The purpose of the subject is to study history from various perspectives or studying history through objects by reading about or going in depth into every detail into where they were from, their significance, etc.
The first question our teacher asked us, was ‘what is history, and why we study history’. There was a brief discussion and the conclusion we came to is that history is basically a record about events that have already taken place.
We learned about the Palaeolithic age (3.3 million BC – 11000 BC), Neolithic age (11000 BC – 8/7500 BC) and Chalcolithic age (4500 BC – 1500 BC) period. We understood how and why objects came into being, their reasons and where they were found. We discussed about Otzi, which was a man found frozen in the earth and was used to study the people of his time period.
We talked about civilisations in general, where and what were the requirement necessary for a civilisation to be properly settled. The first and the main aspect was food. We discussed how it was first hunted and gathered and with time how people moved on to farming. This led us back to the settlement of civilisations and cities. After farming came establishing of cities, it was usually done near water so that it would be easy for them to have water for farming.
Lastly, we studied about an archaeological site called Jericho. It is said to be one of the earliest settlements. There have been 20 layers of civilisation that has been discovered in this site. This is where agriculture was first noticed and civilisation was slowly developing.
We also had an insight into Catal Hoyuk, another archaeological site which has been excavated to find remains of civilisation.
I do think history is important but I never thought that I would enjoy it. I think the reason I am enjoying this class is because of the way it is being taught to us. It is said that history repeats itself and somewhere I do believe it and that’s one of the main reasons history is important.
Fun Fact: Vedant Sir is 1/14th black.
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