Recorded history refers to information about past events which has been preserved by humans and evaluated by historians. Different cultures use various methods for recording this history, and definitions can change accordingly.
Without dates on historical records, historians can struggle to assess their significance, purpose and authenticity. There may be numerous reasons for not dating such records:
1. Speculation
Lacking dates on historical documents may give rise to speculations as to their meaning and purpose. Historians may try to establish its age using radiocarbon dating or by comparing with other historical resources.
Speculation refers to taking risks with potentially high rewards with the hope of making large gains; this motivation drives many individuals into undertaking financial transactions that involve high risks.
History can often be an ambiguous field; no two stories about any given event or person can ever be confirmed with absolute certainty. History does not resemble archaeology or astronomy in that respect; therefore it can be challenging to authenticate historical events. Scholars typically use other methods for placing artifacts and layers into chronological sequence such as stratigraphic markers or proximity to other structures for verification; for instance if burial was found under Trajan’s Column in Rome it cannot have been constructed before AD113 nor after AD54; therefore without other archaeological evidence, guesstimating an approximate date can only help with knowing its placement within chronology.
2. Inconsistency
One of the challenges in working with historical records is ascertaining their authenticity when there is no date attached. Historians use various methods such as radiocarbon dating or compare documents against other historical sources to do this.
An anachronism refers to any person, object, technological device or cultural practice which appears out-of-place with its time period or culture – including juxtaposing two separate historical periods. Examples may include book covers, technology, clothing styles, verbal expressions and musical genres from two eras together, materials used for building houses for plants or animals or customs from two completely unrelated cultures.
Inconsistent data in databases makes it impossible to determine which version is accurate, leading to problems caused by duplicated records, insufficient constraints or logical errors. To address this issue, researchers use various feature extraction, data mining techniques or data cleaning techniques; inconsistent mathematics research has long been ongoing and relies heavily on classical theories like Abraham Robinson’s hyperreals and J. H. Conway’s surreals; other approaches, like category theory’s ‘evolved logic’ approach are also explored as ways forward.
3. Inaccuracy
Historians take great care in checking their work for inaccuracy as inaccurate information can radically alter our understanding of history. A typical book usually goes through multiple rounds of proofreaders for spelling, grammar, sense, logic truth and arithmetic accuracy.
Historians attempt to present their work objectively, which can be difficult. Nearly all records contain some form of bias – for instance, accounts written by those present during an event tend to be more reliable than accounts recounted years later by witnesses who recall it years afterward.
Even when historians use generally accepted benchmarks as starting points, they must remain wary not to allow biases to compromise accuracy. For example, there remains some debate regarding the dates of Tiglath-Pileser invasion (732 BC) and siege of Jerusalem (701 BC), respectively. Although these differences are minor in scale, they highlight issues that arise when benchmarks aren’t calibrated against an objective date such as radiocarbon dating.
4. Ignorance
Root of Ignorance Ignorare (“to ignore”), ignorance refers to an absence of knowledge and should never be used derogatorily when discussing someone. It should always be used carefully when used as a descriptive term against another individual.
Ignorance can be caused culturally. Perhaps the best-known example is Newspeak from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; more generally speaking it could arise through selective memory; which involves people deliberately forgetting some aspects of their past while remembering other parts (see Repression).
Researchers have suggested that current levels of historical ignorance may be caused by dislocations of the past two centuries, totalitarian regime propaganda apparatuses and postmodernism’s relativist and deconstructionist tendencies, along with postmodernism’s relativism and deconstructionism. Other causes include lack of interest (for economic, political or personal reasons) as well as disillusionment with traditional paradigms of history (see Crisis in Historical Thinking for more details). Unfortunately, Canada’s Conservative government has shown little enthusiasm to challenge their own historical ignorance survey results which led to changes to curriculum reform at some schools (See Crisis in Historical Thinking for details). Canada’s Conservative government have shown little enthusiasm to challenge its own historical ignorance survey results which resulted in reforms being put in place which had such profound ramifications in terms of changing curriculum reforms being put into effect at certain schools as a consequence (See The Crisis in Historical Thinking for further details).
