The scholars understand what is written in the inscriptions through the process called decipherment. Most of these inscriptions were written several hundred years ago, and languages and the script used in the inscriptions have changed with time. One good example of decipherment is of the Rosetta stone found in Egypt which was used to decipher ancient Egyptians using Greek language.

(i) AD stands for two Latin words, 'Anno Domini', meaning 'in the year of the Lord' (i.e., Christ). The year 2007, also written as AD 2007, means 2007 years after the birth of Christ.
(ii) BC stands for 'Before Christ', meaning before the birth of Christ. For example, a time period written as 200 BC means 200 years before the birth of Christ. BC runs into countdown format as 10..,9..,8..,7.., 1.. upto the time of Jesus Christ's birth and after his birth it started to run in today's date format, i.e., 1..,2..,3...., onwards.

The Lives of kings and the Lives offormers were different in this manner:
(i) The kings usually lived in urban areas in their palaces. forts while the farmers lived in rural areas in their small houses or huts.
(ii) The kings were depended on others for the supplies offood while the farmers produced food for
themselves and for others also.

There are several things we can find out-what people ate, the kinds of clothes they wore, the houses in which they lived. Also we can find out about the lives of hunters, herders, farmers, rulers, merchants, priests, crafts persons, artists, musicians and scientists.

The advantages of writing on a hard surface are as follow:
(i) The hard surfaces are long-lasting.
(ii) They overcome all chances of destruction from all objects of nature i.e. wind, rain, sun etc.
(iii) They are preserved for future generations to know about our rich past and culture.
(iv) The insects could not eat such materials as they destroyed the manuscripts of the past.
The disadvantages of writing on hard surface are as follow:
(i) It is not easily portable.
(ii) Writing on hard surface is a very difficult task.
(iii) It needs much hard metal to write on the hard surface.
(iv) It requires a lot of time to complete the writing.

(i) Archaeologists and historians are scholars who study things that are made and used in the past through the process of excavation.
(ii) Manuscripts, inscriptions, tools, coins and monuments are the sources of information used by then to know about the past of the people.
(iii) Once these sources are found, learning about the past becomes an adventure and gradually, history is reconstructed. That is why, historians and archaeologists use various sources to study about our past.

(i) This inscription has been found in Rosetta, a town on the north coast of Egypt.
(ii) This inscription was written in three different kinds of languages and scripts, i.e., Greek and two forms of Egyptian.
(iii) In the inscription, the letter 'A' stands for a bird.

(i) This manuscript was written about a thousand years ago.
(ii) The palm leaves were cut into pages and tied together to make books.
(iii) A palm leaf manuscript.

It is evident from the past that the earlier cities were mostly developed over the banks of river because of the following reasons:
(i) Thousand years ago, people lived along the banks of the Narmada river.
(ii) About 4700 years ago, some of the earliest cities flourished on the banks of river Indus and its tributaries.
(iii) Along the banks of the rivers, the necessary conditions for the living of human beings exist.
(iv) The necessities of living such as water, forest are easily available which fulfil the basic needs of the people.
(v) At that time, waterways were the most important means of transportation and communication.