What are the values and limitations of primary sources in History?

Question: What are the values and limitations of primary sources in History!?

Plz list them with brief explanation, thx')Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

My first thought is that there are no limitations of primary sources that don't also apply to secondary or tertiary ones!.

They are restricted and affected by the knowledge, attitude and culture of the originating individual(committee/publication!.!.!.)
And the chief purpose of many (but not all) primary sources will not have been to provide documentation for future historians!.

But they are the building blocks of history that history has left us!. Accounts and overviews drawn from many sources contain the same risks of authorial bias but add extra layers of selection, emphasis and interpretation!. Views from later time periods also tend to introduce different cultural assumptions, if extreme care is not exercised!.
("The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there!.")
The value of primary sources is that they reduce to a minimum those levels of assumptions and value judgements!.
Especially when the sources were not created with history in mind!.
When "Lucius has gone off after girls" is found in Latin on a clay tile in a Roman ruin, the scrawler didn't intend to inform us that some Roman tile-makers were literate!. But he has!.
(example from the Museum of London)

I'll be interested to see if there's some special limitation about primary sources I haven't thought of!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

They give a unique first-hand account of events on the ground, so to speak; yet, can also be subjective in nature as opposed to objective!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com