The First Calendar

Future historians will be in a uniques position when they come to record the history of our
own times. They will hardly know which facts to select from the great mass of evidence that
steadily accumulates. What is more, they will not have to rely solely on the written word.
Films, gramaphone records, and magnetic tapes will provide them with a bewildering amount
of information. They will be able, as it wee, to see and hear us in action. But the historian
attempting to reconstruct the distant past is always faced with a difficult task. He has to
deduce what he can from the few scanty clues available. Even seemingly insignificant
remians can shed interesting light on the history of early man.

Up to now, historians have assumed that calendars came into being with the advent of
agriculture, for then man was faced with a real need to understand something about the
seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this assumption is incorrect.

Historians have long been puzzled by dots, lines, and symbols which have been engraved on
walls, bones, and the ivory tusks of mammoths. The nomads who made these marking lived
by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age which began about 35,000 BC and ended about
10,000 BC. By correlating marking made in various parts of the worlds, historians have been
able to read this difficult code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days
and the phases of the moon.

It is, in fact, a primitive type of calendar. It has long been known that the hunting scenes
depicted on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression. They had a definite meaning,
for they were as near as early man could get to writing. It is possible that there is a definite
relation between these paintings and the markings that sometimes acoopany them. It seems
that man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20,000earlier than has been
suspected.

Comprehension
Give short answers to these questions in your own words as fas as possible.
Use one complete sentence for each answer.

1
01. Why will future historians not have to rely entirely on the written word when they come
to record the history of our own times ?
02. Why do historians who write about the distant past have a difficult task ?
03. When was it believed that calendars were first used ?

Precis
In not more than 80 words, describe what historians have learnt from the strange markings
made by early man. Use your own words as far as possible. Do not include anything that is
not in the last paragraph.

Compositions
In not more than 250 words, describe some of things future historians will be able to learn
about us. Use the ideas given below. Do not write more than four paragraphs.
 Title = Studying The Past
 Introduction = The future historian’s sources : newspapers, magazines, books, films,
recorded sound, existing buildings.
 Development = Social and political history : how we dressed – what we ate – what
houses we lived in – what our cities were like – the forms of entertainment we enjoyed –
the news day by day – the way we fought our wars – great moments in the history –
leading figures of the time as well as ordinary people.
 Conclusion = Study of history will provide interest and excitement – the past will be
brought to life.

Letter Writing
For several years you have been writing to a pen-friend whom you have never met in person.
Write him a letter of about 100 words in three paragraphs telling him that you will be visiting
his bountry soon and expressing pleasure at the thought that you will be able to meet each
other for the first time.