What are sources of history?

There are a number of sources to uncover and study history. Historians focused on what may be termed "modern times" use as historical sources the writings of famous and not so famous people. Our understanding of the events surrounding Jamestown, as an example are based on the writings of people who lived at that time and in years afterwards. Even ancient history can reveal valuable information from thousands of years ago based on the writings of historians that lived in those years. Translations of ancient Latin and Ancient Greek give historians a view of many ancient historical "facts". These facts become more reliable when other writers of the same time, concur with each other. Ancient Hebrew is also a source of historical information. Even the writings of ancient civilizations such as the ancient Egyptian ones, were written in hieroglyphics. Once they became "translatable" the histories of ancient Egyptian kingdoms became known and were sources of information for historians.

Many ancient peoples left no writings of their times. In many cases archaeologists and anthologists provide historical information based on the ruins of ancient peoples.