Research Guides: HIST 1010 Assily: Primary Sources

What is a primary source?

Primary sources consist of records originating from a person, event, or incident and are crafted by eyewitnesses or participants. They offer researchers a valuable means to delve deeper into historical figures and events.

Examples of Primary Sources:

Letters
Diaries or autobiographies
Artifacts
Emails, texts, tweets
Photographs
Newspaper articles
Sound and video recordings

Secondary sources are created by individuals who were not directly involved in the events they describe. The author analyzes, interprets, recounts, or provides commentary on events they did not personally witness or partake in. Secondary sources help us understand a subject and provide different perspectives on historical individuals, events, and incidents.

Examples of Secondary Sources:

Criticism
History books
Magazine articles
Documentaries

Primary Source Websites

ABZU
Guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world.
The Avalon Project - Yale Law School
A large collection of documents in law, history, and diplomacy. A small number are from ancient Europe and the Near East.
CAS Anthropology Collections Database
Searchable collection of Material Culture maintained by the California Academy of Sciences Department of Anthropology.
Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents
Oxford University - Rich archive of notebooks, drawings and photographs, and one of the world’s largest collections of squeezes - a unique resource for palaeographic enquiry
Chinese Text Project
An online repository of pre-modern Chinese texts. Many are translated into English, but some are untranslated.
ETANA Core Texts
Digitized texts that are valuable for teaching and research relating to ancient Near Eastern studies
History of Prehistoric and Ancient Europe
Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
A large collection of full-text primary sources from the ancient world, organized by region. Has sources from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, Israel, and Rome.
The Internet Classics Archive
Online archive of classical Greco-Roman works (some Chinese and near-eastern works as well)
Papyrus Archive - Duke
Texts about and images of nearly 1400 papyri from ancient Egypt.
Perseus Digital Library - Tufts University
Includes primary and secondary sources on the history, literature and culture of the Greco-Roman world, including Philosophy.
Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation
Complete records of Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb including a database of artifacts, notes and diary.
World Digital Library - Library of Congress
Significant primary materials that represent the culture of countries around the world. Sponsored by UNESCO and the Library of Congress. Contains international materials from 8000 BCE to the present.
World History Sources
Website reviews describe online primary–source archives, evaluate resources, and provide classroom suggestions. Browse by region or time period.