📘 Chapter 3: Timeline and Sources of History — Answers
Page 82 — Let's Explore (8th Millennium BCE)
Q. In the timeline given on page 78 (Fig. 3.3), mark the beginning of the 8th millennium BCE.
Answer: The 1st millennium BCE covers the years 1 BCE to 1000 BCE. Counting backwards, the 8th millennium BCE covers the years 7001 BCE to 8000 BCE. So, the beginning of the 8th millennium BCE is the year 8000 BCE.
Page 82 — Let's Explore (Family Timeline, 1900 CE–Present)
Q. Create a timeline stretching from 1900 CE to the current year and place the dates of birth of your grandparents, parents, siblings and yourself. Mark where the 20th century CE begins and ends.
Answer (sample — fill with your own family's dates):
| 1900 CE (20th century begins: 1901) |
Grandparents' Birth | Parents' Birth | Siblings' Birth | My Birth | 2026 CE (We are here) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | e.g., 1955 | e.g., 1985 | e.g., 2012 | e.g., 2015 | 2026 |
Note: The 20th century CE runs from 1901 to 2000. Replace the sample years above with your own family's actual birth years.
Page 84 — Let's Explore (Family Tree Table)
Q. Collect information about three generations of your family and fill the table with names, occupations, place of birth and source of information.
| Relation | Name | Occupation | Place of Birth | Source of Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grandparents (paternal) | ___________ | ___________ | ___________ | e.g., Told by father / Old ID card |
| Grandparents (maternal) | ___________ | ___________ | ___________ | e.g., Told by mother / Photographs |
| Great-grandparents (paternal) | ___________ | ___________ | ___________ | e.g., Told by grandparents |
| Great-grandparents (maternal) | ___________ | ___________ | ___________ | e.g., Family diary / Old letters |
How did you find details about your family's past? Most students find this information through photographs, old diaries, ID cards, and by asking their parents and grandparents to recall their memories.
Page 88 — Let's Explore (Identify the Sources)
Q. Look at the three images of sources of history. Who and what do these objects show?
Image 1 (Gold Coin): This is an ancient gold coin, likely from the Gupta period. Such coins usually show a king or a deity and carry an inscription. Coins like this tell us about the ruler, the metal/technology used, trade and the economy of that time.
Image 2 (Carved Stone/Terracotta Panel): This is a carved panel showing scenes with human figures, possibly from a temple or a stupa railing. Such carved panels tell us about the clothing, daily life, religious beliefs, and artistic skills of people in ancient times.
Image 3 (Lion Capital/Pillar): This is the famous Lion Capital of Ashoka, originally placed on top of an Ashokan pillar at Sarnath. It shows four lions and a wheel (chakra), and tells us about the artistic skill, Buddhist beliefs, and the rule of Emperor Ashoka. (This capital is now India's National Emblem.)
Page 98 — Questions, Activities and Projects
1. Describe the ways early humans communicated with each other before written language was developed.
Before writing was invented, early humans communicated using spoken languages that are now lost. They also used gestures, sounds, and body movements. They expressed their ideas and experiences through rock paintings made on cave walls, showing animals, hunting scenes and human figures. They also used simple symbols and made ornaments like beads and pendants, which they exchanged with other groups as a way of connecting with them.
2. Can we compare historians to detectives? Give reasons for your answer.
Yes, historians can be compared to detectives. Just like a detective collects clues and evidence to solve a mystery, a historian gathers information from many sources such as inscriptions, coins, buildings, tools, and manuscripts to understand what happened in the past. Sometimes these clues (sources) match each other, and sometimes they give different information, so both a detective and a historian must carefully judge which clue can be trusted more before reaching a conclusion.
3. A few exercises with dates:
i) Place these dates chronologically on the timeline: 323 CE, 323 BCE, 100 CE, 100 BCE, 1900 BCE, 1090 CE, 2024 CE
(Earliest to latest — remember, BCE dates count backwards, so a bigger BCE number is older.)
ii) If King Chandragupta was born in 320 CE, which century did he belong to? And how many years was that after the Buddha's birth?
Answer: 320 CE falls in the 4th century CE (301 CE – 400 CE). Since the Buddha was born around 560 BCE, using the formula (BCE + CE − 1): 560 + 320 − 1 = 879 years after the Buddha's birth.
iii) Rani of Jhansi was born in 1828 CE. Which century did she belong to? How many years was that before India's Independence?
Answer: 1828 CE falls in the 19th century CE (1801 CE – 1900 CE). India became independent in 1947 CE, so this was 1947 − 1828 = 119 years before India's Independence.
iv) Turn '12,000 years ago' into a date.
Answer: Taking the present year as 2026 CE, and using the formula (BCE + CE − 1 = years ago): BCE = 12,000 − 2026 + 1 = 9975 BCE (approximately 10,000 BCE).
4. Invite to your school an archaeologist or a historian and ask them to speak on the history of your region and why it's important to know it.
This is a classroom activity. Students should work with their teacher to invite a local archaeologist, historian, or a museum expert to talk about the history of their region (town/village/district), and should prepare questions in advance to ask about local monuments, old objects found nearby, and why knowing this history matters for the community.
5. As a project, write the history of your family or village, using sources of history at your disposal. Ask your teacher to guide you.
This is a project activity. Students can use sources such as family photographs, old documents, land records, elders' memories, old buildings, temples, or local government records to write a short history of their family or village, noting where each piece of information came from.
6. Plan a visit to a nearby museum and write a brief report on the visit.
| Kind of Exhibits in the Museum |
|---|
| e.g., Ancient coins, stone tools, sculptures, old manuscripts, pottery, weapons, paintings, inscriptions, fossils, clothing and ornaments of earlier times — (fill this in after your actual museum visit, along with what you found unexpected, interesting or fun). |
