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Primary sources are a little like clues left behind by people's lives. Primary sources are like silent witnesses of how, what, why, when and where people lived. Primary sources provide the main evidence, the main source, the prime examples for secondary, evaluative sources. Primary sources are crucial in the study of history, but they may be vital in the arts, the sciences and some social sciences.

Examples of primary sources include:
* cave and rock paintings; tree carving for the making of utensils the Australian aboriginals still make a coolamon or water carrier this way, without damaging the life of the tree; graffiti such as found on ancient walls of Herculaneum, which comments on the political arena of the day.
* postcards, letters, journals, diary entries and now emails? (but the latter can easily be altered!)
* photographs; film and film equipment
* calendars
* books; texts; pamphlets; extracts; folios as used by Shakespeare for different play versions
* music scripts; recorded music
* coins and bank notes; stamps; bottles
* clocks and watches
* ornaments
* human and animal remains
* utensils and tools; ovens; white goods; kitchen appliances
* sporting equipment;
* furniture; soft furnishings
* use of precious and semi-precious stones; the use of obsidian
* clothing and accessory jewellery; bags; footwear; ceremonial accessories from birds or animals
* pottery not used as a utensil; paintings including freizes; sculptures
* buildings and monuments; dams and weirs
* war implements; armour
* plants for ornamentation and plants as a food source; seeds

This list is quite extensive and still not exhaustive. Notice how features of the 21st century are creating a new range of primary sources! In fact, anything which survives, making a statement about human activity, culture, religion or lifestyle in a particular era can become a primary source.

The big question is, however, how reliable is a primary source?

In recent times, Ishmael Beah published "A Long Way Gone". It was his account of being an African child soldier. His family had been murdered in the Sierra Leone civil war that lasted from 1991 to 2002. He was drafted into the Sierra Leone army at the age of 13, according to his narrative. This account is a heart-wrenching insight of war through a child's eyes. It is a primary source, selling over 6000,000 copies so far. But since publication, there has been a challenge. A West Australian mining couple discovered, quite by a circumstantial chain of events, that Ishmael must have been 15 when he entered the army and not 13. This means he spent 2-3months in the army and not 2 years as his story claims.

While the "numbers" in the primary source are questionable (just like the ancient historian Herodotus' sense of time was warped!) the events remain. We must always use a primary source carefully, comparing claims with other evidence of the time.

In summary, a primary source is not an absolute truth. It is a version of the truth. (Think of several witnesses to an accident. Each story will be a little different; including or omitting parts. Each witness will only include what, to them, is important or what they remember in a crisis!) It is up to secondary sources to evaluate this primary evidence. Tertiary sources offer databases or catalogues of primary and secondary sources related to a particular topic.

So, while primary sources represent the first record of events, they are still not conclusive evidence. They may be one key to open the door of time, but they are not the master key.

Learn more about this author, Gemma Wiseman.
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