Time and maps in history
that history is a science that organizes the past primarily on the basis of the place of events on the timeline;
to understand the historian’s research attitude;
to explain the concept of a century and era, correctly read century and era of a specific event from a day/year date;
to describe the significance of historical maps as a source of historical knowledge, to reads information from maps and interpret it in a simple manner;
to adopt a critical approach to the historians’ research methods, i.e. understand that historical knowledge is partly based on interpretation.
ChronologyChronology (sequence of events corresponding to their order of occurrence in time) is the basic point of reference for historianshistorians. One of the first questions a historianhistorian asks himself or herself is “When did this happen?” The basic time unit is the year. A period of a hundred years is called a centurycentury. Today, we are living in the 21Indeks górny ststcentury. Our century began on 1 January 2001 and will end on 31 December 2100. In our calendar, we count years from the birth of Jesus Christ. When referring to an event which took place before the birth of Jesus Christ, we say “before Christ” or “BCBC” for short. Events which happened after the birth of Jesus Christ are labelled “anno Domini” or “AD” for short. “Anno Domini” is a Latin phrase and means “in the year of our Lord.” We use timelinestimelines to present events in their chronological order.
A map is another important element of a historianhistorian’s toolkit. Maps help us understand where past events took place. A historical map is not just a representation of a territory. It also shows e.g. sites of major battles, directions of military movements and shifts of borders. All items represented on a map are divided into categories which have their own symbols. All the symbols used in a map are called map symbolization. These symbols are explained in a map key or a map legendmap legend.
Assign the appropriate period of time to the century.
10th century, 20th century, 21th century, 8th century, 18th century, 2nd century, 1st century, 6th century, 14th century, 3rd century, 16th century, 17th century
| years 1-100 | |
| years 1701-1800 | |
| years 901-1000 | |
| years 1601-1700 | |
| years 1301-1400 | |
| years 2001-2100 | |
| years 1501-1600 | |
| years 501-600 | |
| years 1901-2000 | |
| years 201-300 | |
| years 701-800 | |
| years 101-200 |
Which century is it?
12th century BC, 2nd century BC, 8th century BC, 1st century BC
| year 25th BC | |
| year 1128 BC | |
| year 113 BC | |
| year 725 BC |
Read the text below and explain what chronology is.
In history, it is important to know what happened first and what happened later. This sequence of events or phenomena is called chronology. For example, if you are asked to arrange some events chronologically, it means that you should do this starting from the oldest to the newest.
Drag dates to the correct places.
216 BC, 161 CE, 149 BC, 9 CE, 269 CE, 264 BC, 84 CE

From the map above we can read that...
- Częstochowa was besieged by the Swedes.
- the Republic of Poland was waging war with Turkey in the first half of the 17th century.
- Estonia laid within the borders of the Republic of Poland in the first half of the 17th century.
- a naval battle took place near the village of Oliwa.
- peace was made in Minsk.
Look at the contemporary political map of Poland and its neighbors. Read information on neighboring countries. Look for information about the capital cities of Slovakia and Russia in available sources.
Keywords
history, map, timeline, age, century
Glossary
historyk – osoba zajmująca się zawodowo badaniem historii.
wiek – jednostka miary czasu – 100 lat.
chronologiczny – następujący po sobie w kolejności.
era – okres w dziejach, najczęściej zapoczątkowany jakimś ważnym wydarzeniem.
klepsydra – dawne urządzenie do mierzenia czasu – rodzaj zegara.
oś czasu – linia, na której zaznacza się chronologicznie ważne daty i wydarzenia.
p.n.e. – przed naszą erą, czyli mający miejsce przed narodzinami Chrystusa.
n.e. – naszej ery, czyli mający miejsce po narodzinach Chrystusa.
legenda – tekst lub tabela, która objaśnia daną mapę i symbole na niej zawarte.
skala – stosunek odległości na mapie do tej w rzeczywistości, np. skala 1:100 oznacza, że jeden cm na mapie to 100 cm w rzeczywistości.