Welcome

This guide is for students wanting to find and understand primary sources for college level research papers and projects. The Green tabs (left) provide tips for finding the best primary sources we have in the Library for Ancient Egypt.

What are primary sources?

PRIMARY SOURCES:

A primary source is a document or a physical object that was written or created during the time under study by witnesses who experienced the event or condition first-hand.

Primary sources are the raw materials of history and include items such as diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, official records, autobiographies. Primary sources can also include creative works (poetry, drama, novels, art) or relics and artifacts (pottery, clothing, buildings, furniture).

SECONDARY SOURCES:

Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources and are one or more steps removed from the event that is being reported. Examples include journal articles, which interpret or review previous findings; textbooks, criticisms; encyclopedias; commentaries.

Reference:

Montana State University Billings. (n.d.). History - HSTR 365: History of the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources. https://libguides.msubillings.edu/c.php?g=242171&p=1610054#:~:text=Primary%20sources%20are%20the%20raw,footage%2C%20official%20records%2C%20autobiographies.

What's a Primary Source?

Primary Sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence on a subject. These are sources created by someone who experienced the period or event first hand.

Because they may be eye-witness accounts, many primary sources are created at the time the event occurred, but recorded memories -- such as autobiographies, memoirs, hieroglyphs, pictures, and oral histories -- are also considered primary sources.

Primary sources come in many formats! To better understand the range and variety, you'll want to see:

What are Primary Sources? (Yale University)

Below are related research guides from this Library:

News and Journalism
Primary Sources

Primary Sources

The Library has purchased many books and other primary source material for you to use in your papers and topics.

Here is a short list, with some highlighted below.

How They Lived by James Ciment; Robert André LaFleur (Foreword by)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781610698962
Publication Date: 2015-12-14
This book features primary documents and artifacts of ordinary people in history, as well as annotations that help the reader put them into context and grasp their deeper meaning.
The Ancient World (2700 B. C. E. - 50 C. E. ) by Salem Press
Call Number: D59.A495 2015
ISBN: 9781619257719
Publication Date: 2015-10-30
"From Gilgamesh to Ancient Egypt to the Fall of Rome, this volume provides easy-to-use tools to engage, enlighten and give students a new frame of reference to study and analyze the most important documents from Ancient History. Through in-depth analysis of important primary documents from B.C.E. and C.E., readers will gain new insights into the life and culture in Ancient History. Written by historians and experts in the field, this resource examines a wide array of primary source documents with an in-depth critical analysis. Articles begin by introducing readers to its historical context, followed by a description of the author's life and circumstances in which the document is written. A document analysis guides readers in understanding key elements of language, rhetoric, and social and political meaning that define the significance of the author and the document in Ancient history. Defining Documents in World History: Ancient World provides detailed analysis of the following topics: The Fall of Rome, the Barbarian Invasion, and the Ancient Huns; Ancient Egypt: the religion and culture; The daily life and culture of Sumeria, Ancient Babylonia, the Huns, Ancient Ethiopians, and the Ancient Mayans; The culture, religion, and law of Ancient Rome; The Military and Government war efforts. From speeches to journal entries, government documents and newspaper articles, students and researchers will gain new insights into the life and culture of Ancient History. The documents represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that define social, political and cultural subjects throughout this significant time period."--Publisher website.
Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt by Jane Rowlandson (Editor)
Call Number: HQ1137.E3 W65 1998
ISBN: 9780521582124
Publication Date: 1998-11-26
This book makes available to students and other nonspecialists a varied collection of over three hundred translated texts and more than fifty illustrations relating to women's lives in Greek and Roman Egypt. These are accompanied by an introductory chapter and full explanatory notes. It makes accessible to all those interested in social history, and in particular the lives of women, an extraordinarily rich body of material from the ancient world.
Cleopatra by Prudence J. Jones
Call Number: DT92.7.J66 2006
ISBN: 9780806137414
Publication Date: 2006-04-10
Derived from a course Jones (classics, Montclair State U.) taught at Bryn Mawr College with another professor, this volume is an anthology of primary sources from Roman times and cultural accounts of Cleopatra from the 14th to the 20th centuries. The readings describe the Ptolemies, Cleopatra and her death, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Octavian, and the Battle of Actium. The second section, which deals with reception from modern eras, examines whether Cleopatra was good or bad, Shakespeare's representation of her, her sexuality, accounts by women such as Charlotte Bronte, Arabic and Afrocentric portrayals, modern depictions by George Bernard Shaw and Thornton Wilder, and portrayals of Egypt by Percy Bysshe Shelley and others. The book contains a genealogy and selective filmography.

Primary Sources World History

Subject Guide

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Welcome

Welcome

This guide is for students wanting to find and understand primary sources for college level research papers and projects. The Green tabs (left) provide tips for finding the best primary sources we have in the Library for Ancient Egypt.

What are primary sources?

PRIMARY SOURCES:

A primary source is a document or a physical object that was written or created during the time under study by witnesses who experienced the event or condition first-hand.

SECONDARY SOURCES:

Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources and are one or more steps removed from the event that is being reported. Examples include journal articles, which interpret or review previous findings; textbooks, criticisms; encyclopedias; commentaries.

What's a Primary Source?

Primary Sources

The Library has purchased many books and other primary source material for you to use in your papers and topics.

Here is a short list, with some highlighted below.