Most cultures had written tablets, writings, papers, etc that had dates and those were kept somewhere safe so we have it now and authors write them in textbooks that historians read
Mary's behavior is an example of learned helplessness, that is a behaviour pattern of a subject that endures repeatedly aversive, violent or traumatic stimuli and becomes unable to escape or avoid them. The subject has a tendency to not accept escape or avoidance as an option in the future.
They can be classified as "props".
A prop is something which is utilized in front of an
audience or on screen by on-screen characters or individuals in real life amid
a performance. Generally a prop is thought to be anything mobile or compact on
a set. The Oxford Dictionary reference finds the main use of "props"
in 1841, while the solitary type of "prop" showed up in 1911.