Unit II

I. Look through the words and expressions and learn them:

• to emphasize the importance – підкреслити важливість;

• to be available – бути доступним;

• to encompass subfields and ancillary fields – охоплювати підрозділи та допоміжні галузі;

• to be mutually exclusive – бути взаємовиключним;

• to concern oneself with – цікавитися/займатися чимось;

• to challenge notion – оспорювати, піддавати сумніву поняття;

• to be limited to the written word – бути обмеженим письмовим словом;

• to coin – вигадувати/створювати/викарбовувати;

• to yield information – надавати інформацію;

• to rely on various sources of evidence – покладатися на різноманітні джерела доказів;

• cuneiform writing – клинопис;

• clay tablets – глиняні дощечки;

• a blunt reed – зрізаний очерет;

• wedge shaped – клиновидний;

• within the region in question – в межах галузі/питання, що розглядають;

• to generate – породжувати, викликати

II. Read and translate the text: history and prehistory

History is the study of past human events and activities. Although this broad discipline has often been classified under either the humanities or the social sciences, it can be seen to be a bridge between them, incorporating methodologies from both fields of study.

The term history entered the English language with the meaning of "relation of incidents, story" from the Latin historia "narrative, account." This itself was derived from the Ancient Greek historía, meaning "a learning or knowing by inquiry, history, record, narrative," from the verb historeîn, "to inquire".

Traditionally, historians have attempted to answer historical questions through the study of written documents, although historical research is not limited merely to these sources. In general, the sources of historical knowledge can be separated into three categories: what is written, what is said, and what is physically preserved, and historians often consult all three. Historians frequently emphasize the importance of written records, which universally date to the development of writing. This emphasis has led to the term prehistory, referring to a time before written sources are available. Since writing emerged at different times throughout the world, the distinction between prehistory and history often depends on the topic.

As a field of study, history encompasses many subfields and ancillary fields. These include chronology, historiography, archaeology, genealogy, palaeography among many others.

The scope of the human past has naturally led scholars to divide that time into manageable pieces for study. There are a variety of ways in which the past can be divided, including chronologically, culturally, and topically. These three divisions are not mutually exclusive, and significant overlap is often present. It is possible for historians to concern themselves with both very specific and very general locations, times, and topics, although the trend has been toward specialization.

History and Prehistory. Traditionally, the study of history was limited to the written and spoken word. However, the rise of academic professionalism and the creation of new scientific fields in the 19th and 20th centuries brought a flood of new information that challenged this notion. Archaeology, anthropology and other social sciences were providing new information and even theories about human history. Some traditional historians questioned whether these new studies were really history, since they were not limited to the written word. A new term, prehistory, was coined, to encompass the results of these new fields where they yielded information about times before the existence of written records.

In the 20th century, the division between history and prehistory became problematic. Prehistorians began using archaeology to explain important events in areas that were traditionally in the field of history. Historians began looking beyond traditional political history narratives with new approaches such as economic, social and cultural history, all of which relied on various sources of evidence. In recent decades, strict barriers between history and prehistory may be decreasing.

There are different views for the definition of when history begins. Some believe history began in the 34th century BC, with cuneiform writing. Cuneiforms were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed called a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ("wedge shaped"). The Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite (and Luwian), Hurrian (and Urartian) languages, and it inspired the Old Persian and Ugaritic national alphabets.

For others history has become a "general" term meaning the study of "everything" that is known about the human past (but even this barrier is being challenged by new fields such as Big History).

Sources that can give light on the past, such as oral tradition, linguistics, and genetics, have become accepted by many mainstream historians. Nevertheless, archaeologists distinguish between history and prehistory based on the appearance of written documents within the region in question. This distinction remains critical for archaeologists because the availability of a written record generates very different interpretative problems and potentials.