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QLDAncient HistoryQuick questions
Unit 3: Reconstructing the ancient world (Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum)
Quick questions on Reconstructing the ancient world: evidence, historiography and source analysis skills for QCE Ancient History Unit 3 and IA1
2short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What are types of sources?Show answer
The first skill is identifying what kind of source you are looking at. A primary source comes from the period under study (a graffito, a wall painting, an inscription, a skeleton, Pliny's letter); a secondary source is a later interpretation (a modern historian's book, an excavation report). Sources are also written (literary texts, inscriptions, documents) or archaeological and material (buildings, artefacts, human remains, environmental evidence). The same object can be primary for one question and secondary for another.
What is applying the skills in IA1?Show answer
The IA1 examination is where these skills are assessed under conditions. You are given a stimulus pack of previously unseen sources on the Unit 3 topic, often a mix of a site plan, an image of a wall painting or artefact, an inscription or graffito, an ancient written extract and a modern historian's interpretation. A strong response builds a clear historical argument in answer to the question, integrates the sources by direct reference rather than describing them one by one, and evaluates each for origin, purpose, perspective, usefulness and reliability. The cognitive verbs (comprehend, analyse, evaluate) signal what is required, and the highest marks go to evaluation that judges evidence with explicit reference to its origin and context.
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