Source Analysis and Interpretation (Written, Visual and Material Evidence)
This domain tests whether you interrogate evidence rather than simply report it. Written, visual and material sources are treated alike: each has a maker, a date, a purpose and an audience, and each is selective.
Questions to ask of any source
- What is it (genre, material, type of object)?
- Who made it, for whom, and with what resources?
- When, and how do we know?
- What is claimed, and what is left out?
- How does it compare with corroborating or conflicting evidence?
Distinguish primary (contemporary) from secondary, remembering that a primary source can be highly partisan. Literary sources have literary aims: Thucydides' speeches are composed, inscriptions advertise, coins are state messaging, satire exaggerates.
Types
Inscriptions: honours, laws, epitaphs, building accounts - often the best evidence for names, dates and institutions. Coins: portrait, legend, reverse type, mint. Vases: shape, decoration, provenance, use. Buildings: plan, materials, construction sequence. Excavation: stratigraphy, assemblage, context - an object without context loses much of its value.
Worked example
An Augustan denarius shows a portrait with 'CAESAR' and, on the reverse, a crocodile with 'AEGYPTO CAPTA'. Reasoning: identify type (silver coin, minted in quantity), date (after 30 BC), then read the message: Egypt conquered, the princeps as guarantor of the grain supply. Note the medium's limits - it carries a claim, not proof that every user accepted it - and corroborate with literary accounts of Actium.
Traps
Treating a source as a transparent window; ignoring genre and audience; interpreting an object without its context; assuming 'primary' means unbiased.