History contains both fact and opinion. Facts are things that are unchanging and can be objectively verified. Many historical facts are verified by primary sources, which consist of documents and other types of physical items that were created during the time being studied.

Speculative. We do read about various speculations in newspapers- economic, political, etc. Similarly, RC passages explaining any such theories adopt a speculative tone of writing. Putting it other ways, such passages revolve around hypothetical things and expert opinions.

Speculative fiction is a literary “super genre,” which encompasses a number of different genres of fiction, each with speculative elements that are based on conjecture and do not exist in the real world.

How do I establish accuracy?

1. The creator of the source was present at the time of the event.
2. The creator is writing to an audience who would have been fully aware of the information stated.
3. The source was written with the explicit purpose of recording unbiased information.

Historical interpretation is the process by which we describe, analyze, evaluate, and create an explanation of past events. We base our interpretation on primary [firsthand] and secondary [scholarly] historical sources. We analyze the evidence, contexts, points of view, and frames of reference.

Historians differ with one another both because the “facts” are seldom as straightforward as their critics claim and because facts by themselves mean almost nothing without an effort to assign meaning to them. There are, of course, some historical “facts” that are not in dispute.

roughly 5,000 years

China

10,000–9,000 years ago (8000 BC to 7000 BC): In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq, cultivation of barley and wheat begins.