Reflections on Deep Time: From the Big Bang to the End of Planet Earth

Authors

Daniel E. Schafer, Belmont UniversityFollow

Abstract

Historians are well-known students of time. As a professional historian, I study events that occurred roughly a century ago. While their interest in specific time periods may vary, all historians engage with the question of change over time. Historians traditionally limit themselves to the age of written records—the last several thousand years or so—though we are always happy to supplement our study of documents with statues, ruins, paintings, artifacts and other debris of the past. As we go back to earlier periods, we increasingly rely on our archeologist friends to supplement our study of written records. For the very earliest periods, history shades off into pure archeology. We generally let the archeologists do the heavy lifting for cultures of, say, 7000 BC. Yet, we do not ignore those findings; historians know that such early periods are important for understanding what comes later.

Keywords

Humanities Symposium

Recommended Citation

Schafer, Daniel E. (2014) "Reflections on Deep Time: From the Big Bang to the End of Planet Earth," Belmont Humanities Symposium Journal: Vol. 5, Article 12.
Available at: https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium_journal/vol5/iss1/12