10 minute Junior Cycle revision series part 1

Indiziert: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Let's try to revise as much Junior Cycle history as we can in this video before I run out of time.

[00:00:05]History is the study of the past.

[00:00:07]A historian is someone who studies the past using sources. There are two main categories of sources, primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources come directly from the time being studied. They are first-hand accounts.

[00:00:20]They were either made or used by people of the past or they recall events witnessed by people of the past.

[00:00:28]Examples of primary sources include tools, weapons, buildings, a diary, newspapers. Secondary sources provide second-hand information or evidence.

[00:00:38]They are created after an event has happened by someone who did not witness what they are writing or talking about.

[00:00:44]Examples include textbooks and films.

[00:00:47]There are many different types of primary and secondary sources such as written, visual, aural, oral, or tactile. Written sources include things like documents, newspapers, texts, or emails. Visual sources include photographs, videos, paintings, maps.

[00:01:03]Aural sources are sounds of the past such as an air raid siren.

[00:01:08]Oral sources are sources that are spoken such as interviews or recordings.

[00:01:13]Tactile sources are sources that can be held or touched such as artifacts, buildings, monuments, coins, models.

[00:01:21]Prehistory refers to the time before the invention of writing. Chronological order means putting events in the order in which they happened starting with the earliest. An archive is a place that mainly stores written documents such as the National Archives in Dublin. An artifact is an object made by people such as axes, spears, coins, phones, clothes, watches.

[00:01:44]A museum is a building that mainly stores artifacts such as the National Museum in Dublin.

[00:01:49]Bias means one-sided. So, if I was reffing my friend's match and every call that I made was in their favor even though it shouldn't have been. That is me being biased. That is one-sided.

[00:02:02]Propaganda is the selective use of information to promote a particular point. Most advertising is propaganda.

[00:02:09]So, they'll tell you the really good things about their product to get you to buy the product, but they won't tell you the bad things about the product. A fact is something that can be proven with evidence. An opinion is what one or more people think. So, for example, Dublin is the capital of Ireland is a fact. Cork is the real capital of Ireland is an opinion. Objective means being unbiased.

[00:02:31]So, you are only dealing with the facts.

[00:02:33]You're not letting opinions get in the way.

[00:02:36]Historical empathy refers to like having feelings or compassion for someone else.

[00:02:42]So, I can understand how they might be feeling in this situation. Commemoration means to remember.

[00:02:48]A celebration is usually a big party, but a commemoration, you're just remembering something that happened.

[00:02:54]Cause is the reason for something.

[00:02:56]Consequence is the result of something.

[00:02:58]Change means things being different.

[00:03:01]Continuity refers to things being the same or staying the same.

[00:03:05]Revision is to go back over something again. Reinterpretation of historical judgments means to rethink previous ideas.

[00:03:14]A repository of historical evidence is a location where you can find lots of historical evidence or information. For example, a museum, an archive, a library, an exhibition.

[00:03:26]And it could refer to like an online exhibition as well. Significance means importance. Connections refers to how things are linked.

[00:03:34]Comparison means looking at two or more things and seeing what's the same and what's different.

[00:03:40]Archaeology refers to the study of the past by looking at the things that people have left behind.

[00:03:47]An archaeologist is someone who studies the past by examining what they have left behind. The area excavated by an archaeologist is called a site. There are a number of ways of finding a site.

[00:03:58]Archaeologists can look in obvious places such as the ruins of a church or a castle. They can get clues from maps, documents, and aerial photographs. So, an aerial photograph is a photograph taken from on high.

[00:04:10]They can get clues from myths and legends such as Troy. And they could be called in to carry out a rescue or salvage excavation. So, that's carried out before building work takes place.

[00:04:21]Usually what happens is building work construction work will start, they'll find something, they'll pause the building, bring in the archaeologist.

[00:04:29]The archaeologist can kind of dig up excavate as much as they can find, and then they're out again and the building work continues.

[00:04:36]There are a number of steps when carrying out an excavation.

[00:04:39]First, you have to fence off the site from the public. Next, you draw a site map to mark out the area being excavated. You remove the topsoil with a digger before slowly and carefully digging through each layer of soil with tools such as a trowel, brush, and sieve.

[00:04:57]Found artifacts are photographed, put in an airtight container, and their location is marked on the site map.

[00:05:04]Archaeologists are constantly on the lookout for post holes because these can show like the size and scale of buildings of the past.

[00:05:12]Archaeologists can face a number of difficulties such as the weather, time, and legal problems.

[00:05:18]Once an object is found, an archaeologist just needs to date the object, and there are three main ways of dating found objects.

[00:05:25]The first is carbon-14 dating or radiocarbon dating.

[00:05:29]Anything that once lived contains carbon-14.

[00:05:32]After death, the carbon slowly leaks away. Consequently, by measuring how much carbon-14 is left, archaeologists can determine how old an object is.

[00:05:43]Stratigraphy or stratigraphy involves taking careful note of the layers of soil. If something with a known date such as a coin is found on the same level or strata or layer as another object, we can assume that it's probably from the same time period. If something is found closer to the surface, it's probably newer. If something is found deeper in the soil, it's probably older.

[00:06:09]Dendrochronology or tree ring dating involves the study of tree rings. Each ring represents a year of the tree's growth. By studying these tree ring patterns, archaeologists can learn the date of wooden objects.

[00:06:22]Ancient Rome is an example of a named ancient civilization.

[00:06:27]The Roman Empire conquered most of Europe including Spain, France, and England. At its height, Rome ruled more than 45 million people.

[00:06:36]We get evidence about ancient Rome from the excavations of Pompeii and from the writings of people like Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger.

[00:06:44]Rich Romans were called patricians.

[00:06:47]Patricians lived in a domus in the city or a villa in the countryside. There was often a shrine to the gods in their homes called a lararium. Patricians had an underfloor heating system called hypocaust. Rich Romans ate a dinner called a cena and this included items like crows, dormice, swans, peacocks, and roses.

[00:07:07]Average Romans were called plebians.

[00:07:09]Plebians lived in wooden apartment blocks called insulae.

[00:07:14]Poor Romans were given a free grain called the dole. They used garum or fermented fish sauce to hide the taste of rotten food.

[00:07:24]200,000 people were given the dole of each month. Romans had takeaways called thermopolia. Romans wore shirt-like tunics. Men wore a toga over their tunics and women wore a stola over their tunics. Children often wore a lucky necklace called a bulla. The Romans went to the baths every day. There were three temperatures in the baths, the caldarium, hot room, frigidarium, cold room, and tepidarium, warm room.

[00:07:53]The Romans enjoyed chariot racing at the Circus Maximus, gladiatorial games which were held in amphitheaters such as the Colosseum, and they went to odeons to watch plays.

[00:08:03]The Romans believed in many gods such as Mars, the god of war, and Venus, the goddess of love. They built temples such as the Pantheon. Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 312 AD.

[00:08:17]Ancient Rome has left an incredibly important legacy. We have underfloor heating which they called the hypocaust, takeaways called thermopoliums, infrastructure such as roads and aqueducts, social welfare, again we mentioned that poorer Romans got the dole, public health systems that included the baths.

[00:08:37]The idea of innocent until proven guilty comes from ancient Rome.

[00:08:40]Some of our months of the year such as July and August come from the names of Roman emperors.

[00:08:46]Many people still use Roman numerals today. For example, the Super Bowl always has like Roman numerals in the name.

[00:08:53]And many different European languages stem from Latin such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian.