Hi, I have a question about what word would be the correct one to use. If historians want to make statements about the past, they need to do so based on things that are left over from the past, right? I'm talking about written reports, letters, old books, ruins of buildings, photographs, human remains, and so on. How do historians refer to these things in general? I guess you could call them evidence or proof or whatever. But beyond that, what is the proper word to use - would that be artefacts, or relics? Or is there some other word that historians like to use here? Thanks for your time.
The word we use is 'sources', more specifically primary sources (as opposed to secondary sources which would be something like a book written by a historian). There are many different types of sources, as you have described.