100+ Words Related to History

November 16, 2023

Are you just beginning a history course or studying for a test and looking to understand words related to history? Follow along to brush up on your history-related vocabulary.

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Words Related to Books

Table of Contents

Historian

One of the most common history words is historian. A historian is someone who studies the past by researching and examining relevant evidence. As a historian, you might read a journal entry from someone who fought in a world war. Or you might study a novel that criticized slavery. You could also interview someone who experienced an event firsthand. Often, historians specialize in a specific people group, period, or historical event.

Historiography

After researching and examining the past, many historians write about what they have learned in an organized and reputable way. This is historiography: the writing of history. However, some words related to history are more complicated, and historiography is one of them.

Historiography is also the study of the writing of history. If you study historiography, you look at the presentation of history throughout the years. As a human, it is impossible to study history without biases. If you study historiography, you look for the biases of historians by asking questions such as, “What parts of history did this historian highlight?” or “Why did this historian leave that part of the narrative out?” Another question might be, “Who benefits from telling the story this way as opposed to a different way?”

Era

An era is simply a designated period of time. Eras often begin with a well-known event, such as the election of a president (i.e., the Reagan era). Sometimes, they start when a civilization ends (such as the fall of the Roman empire leading to the Middle Ages). They can also begin with a discovery (i.e., the gold rush era). Historians may divide time into long periods, such as the Byzantine era, which lasted approximately 1,848 years. But shorter eras, such as the Civil War era, are also common.

Medieval

The medieval era lasted about ten centuries and is also called the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages. This European era began with the fall of Rome (476 AD). It ended with the start of the Renaissance (around 1450 AD).

The word medieval refers to anything that relates to the Middle Ages. For instance, you could discuss medieval trade routes or medieval cities. More generally, the word medieval can mean something that is very outdated.

What was it like during the medieval era? Well, farming was a common occupation, and the Christian church held a lot of influence. Your social status and occupation during this era depended on which class you were born into. The ruling class was on top, followed by the clergy and then the working class.

Archaeology

Archeology is one way that historians study the past. Archeologists study the physical remains of civilizations and draw conclusions from what they’ve collected and analyzed. If you take a peek at an archeological workspace, you may find human bones, ancient pottery, or a scroll. As an archeologist, you go anywhere you can find the remains of societies. You might travel to desolate deserts, bustling cities, or even to underwater sites.

Ancient

You may wonder what qualifies something as ancient. Some words related to history have both historical and common definitions. For the latter, ancient means something very old, but old is defined rather loosely. For example, “Fax machines are ancient.”

The historical meaning of ancient is similar: something that happened or existed a long time ago—for instance, ancient civilizations or artifacts.

Artifact

Artifacts are the remains of a civilization studied by archeologists. Artifacts can be almost anything that a civilization would leave behind, from a part of a wall to a weapon to a piece of art. Some famous archeological artifacts include The Rosetta Stone, King Tut’s tomb, and The Dead Sea Scrolls.

Artifacts give you clues about how different societies lived. Through artifacts, you can discover what people ate, how they spent their free time, and what they used to fight. You can even learn about trade routes and how cultures change over time.