A. Heritage and Identity · Early Societies to 1500 CE

Into the Past: Early Societies and How We Know About Them

A2.1 A2.2 A2.4 A3.2About 40 minutes

Learning goals

I can explain what an early society is.
I can read dates written with BCE and CE and place them on a timeline.
I can name kinds of evidence, like artefacts, art, writing and oral history, that tell us about the past.
I can ask good inquiry questions and sort information with a T-chart.

Words to know

society
A large group of people who live together and share ways of life, rules, beliefs and ways of making decisions.

early society
A society that lived a long time ago. In this unit: from about 3000 BCE to 1500 CE.

BCE
"Before the Common Era": years before year 1. The bigger the number, the longer ago.

CE
"Common Era": years from year 1 until now. This year, 2026, is in the CE.

artefact
An object made or used by people long ago, like a tool, a pot, a comb or a bead.

archaeologist
A scientist who carefully digs up and studies artefacts and places to learn how people lived long ago.

oral history
History passed down by speaking, from Elders and storytellers to young people, over many generations.

inquiry
An investigation: asking questions, finding information, thinking about it, and sharing what you learned.

Remember from Grade 3

In Grade 3 you were a history detective. You travelled back about 200 years, to 1780 to 1850. You learned about primary sources (made at the time) and secondary sources (made later), and that oral history shared by Elders is an important source.

This year we are going back much, much farther: hundreds and even thousands of years!

What is an early society?

A society is a large group of people who live together and share:

ways of getting food, shelter and clothing,
rules and ways of making decisions,
beliefs, stories and celebrations,
a language (or several).

An early society is a society from long ago. In this unit we study early societies from about 3000 BCE to 1500 CE. That is from about 5000 years ago to about 500 years ago.

We will visit early societies from many parts of the world:

First Nations societies: the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabe, around the Great Lakes.
Inuit and their Thule ancestors, in the Arctic.
Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and ancient China.
The Maya, in what is now Mexico and Central America.
Ancient Greece and medieval Europe.
The Mali Empire in West Africa.

For each society we will ask: How did people live? How were they governed? How did the environment shape their lives? And what can we still see of them today?

BCE and CE: a new way to read dates

Many calendars count years from a starting point called year 1.

Years after year 1 are CE (Common Era). The bigger the number, the later it is. 1500 CE is later than 1000 CE.
Years before year 1 are BCE (Before the Common Era). These count backward. The bigger the number, the longer ago it was. 3000 BCE is earlier than 1000 BCE.

You may also see BC and AD. They mean the same years as BCE and CE.

Not every society used this calendar! The Maya, the Haudenosaunee, the Chinese and many others had their own ways of keeping track of time. We use BCE and CE so we can put all of them on one timeline.

A timeline from 3000 BCE to today. Year 1 is in the middle. To the left, BCE years count down toward year 1. To the right, CE years count up. The shaded band shows the years in this unit, 3000 BCE to 1500 CE.

Quick trick for "how long ago?"

For a CE year, subtract it from 2026. 1500 CE was 2026 − 1500 = 526 years ago, about 500 years.
For a BCE year, add it to 2026. 3000 BCE was about 3000 + 2026 = about 5000 years ago.

We say "about" because these dates are often estimates.

How do we know about societies from so long ago?

Nobody alive today was there! So we use evidence:

Artefacts: objects people made and used, like pots, tools, combs, beads and jewellery. Archaeologists carefully dig them up and study them.
Buildings and ruins: pyramids, temples, castles, and the marks left in the ground by longhouses.
Art: paintings on walls (murals), carvings, rock paintings and petroglyphs (pictures carved into rock), sculptures and woven cloth.
Writing: some societies wrote on clay, stone, papyrus, bark or paper.
Oral history: knowledge passed down by speaking. First Nations and Inuit Elders and knowledge keepers share histories that go back many generations. In West Africa, storytellers called griots keep history in songs and stories.
Wampum: belts of shell beads that Haudenosaunee and other nations use to record agreements and important events.

Pieces of broken clay pottery, a stone arrowhead, a bone tool and shell beads lying in the soil at a dig site, next to a trowel and a brush. — Artefacts like these are clues about how people lived long ago. Archaeologists dig slowly with small tools, such as a trowel and a brush, so nothing gets broken. AI-generated image

Six kinds of evidence about the past. History detectives use more than one kind, because each tells a different part of the story.

Evidence	What it can tell us
A clay cooking pot with burnt food inside	What people ate and how they cooked
A bone needle	People sewed their own clothing
A wall painting of musicians	Music was part of celebrations; what instruments they used
A story told by an Elder	The history, values and teachings of a nation, in its own words
A clay tablet with writing	Laws, trade records, stories, and who was in charge

Each kind of evidence tells us something different. Good history detectives use more than one.

Asking inquiry questions

An inquiry is an investigation. In this unit you will follow these steps:

Ask a question.
Gather information from different sources.
Organize it (for example, in a T-chart or Venn diagram).
Think about what the evidence shows and make a conclusion.
Share what you learned.

A good inquiry question can't be answered with just yes or no. In this unit our big question is about ways of life and the environment:

How did the land, water and weather shape the way people lived?

Worked example

Let's read an artefact together

Archaeologists find a bone comb in an old village site near Lake Ontario. It is carved with a small animal on the handle. What can we figure out?

Look closely. It is made of bone, not plastic or metal.
What does that tell us? People used parts of animals they hunted. Nothing was wasted.
Look at the carving. Someone spent time making it beautiful, not just useful. Art mattered to these people.
Ask a new question: Was the animal special to the family that owned the comb? To find out, we could ask a knowledge keeper from that nation or read what archaeologists wrote.

The comb tells us people used animal bone, cared for their hair, and valued art. It also gives us new questions to investigate.

Worked example

Let's make a T-chart

Sort these facts about the past into a T-chart with two columns: Food and Shelter: corn, longhouse, fish, snow house, berries, tent of skins.

Draw a big T. Write Food on the left and Shelter on the right.
Ask for each fact: is it something people eat or something people live in?
Food: corn, fish, berries.
Shelter: longhouse, snow house, tent of skins.

Food: corn, fish, berries. Shelter: longhouse, snow house, tent of skins.

Just for fun

Archaeologists may be the only people who smile when someone tells them, "Your work is in ruins!"

Hands-on activity

Be an archaeologist at home

You need: 5 ordinary objects from around your home (for example, a spoon, a mitten, a toothbrush, a pencil and a coin), paper and a pencil.

Pretend you are an archaeologist 1000 years in the future. You dig up these 5 objects.
Make a T-chart. Left column: Object. Right column: What it tells me about people in 2026.
Fill it in. Example: Mitten: people lived where it is cold in winter.
Talk about it: Which object would be the most confusing for a future archaeologist? What could they get wrong?

This is exactly what real archaeologists do with artefacts from early societies, and why they must be careful with their conclusions.

Your turn

What is a society?

Which was longer ago: 2000 BCE or 1000 BCE?

Which was longer ago: 1000 CE or 1500 CE?

About how many years ago was 1500 CE?

What is an artefact? Give one example.

What is oral history?

Name three kinds of evidence that tell us about early societies.

Write one good inquiry question about an early society.

More practice: warm-up

What does an archaeologist do?

Is the year 2026 BCE or CE?

On a timeline, which side are the earliest dates on?

What is a petroglyph?

What are griots?

More practice: on your own

Put these in order, earliest first: 500 CE, 3000 BCE, 1200 CE, 1000 BCE.

About how many years ago was 1000 BCE?

Why do we use BCE and CE even for societies that had their own calendars?

Is this a good inquiry question? "Did the Maya eat food?" Explain, and improve it.

Why do history detectives use more than one kind of evidence?

Challenge

A wall painting shows a king sitting on a throne while many people bow to him. What can we learn? What might be missing from this source?

Some First Nations and Inuit histories were not written down but passed on by Elders. Why is oral history still strong evidence?

How many years are there from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE, about?

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which date is the longest ago?

What does an archaeologist study?

Which is an artefact?

About how many years ago was 1500 CE?

Which is the best inquiry question?

Oral history is...

For parents and teachers

Big idea: This unit visits early societies from about 3000 BCE to 1500 CE, including at least one First Nation society (we study two: Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe) and one Inuit society (Thule ancestors of Inuit), plus societies from Africa, Asia, Europe and Mesoamerica. This first lesson builds the tools: BCE/CE dates, kinds of evidence, and inquiry questions.

How to help at home:

Make a long paper timeline (3000 BCE to 1500 CE) and keep it up. Add each society as you study it.
When your child states a fact, ask "How do we know that?" and help them name the evidence (artefact, art, writing, oral history).
Practise turning yes/no questions into how/why questions.

Common difficulties:

BCE confusion: children expect bigger numbers to be later. Remind them that BCE years count down toward year 1, like a countdown.
Exact dates: many ancient dates are estimates. It is fine to say "about".
Ranking evidence: children sometimes think only writing is "real" history. Oral histories of First Nations and Inuit communities and of West African griots are valid evidence, treated with the same respect as written sources.