We all realize that seeing the future requires prophetic inspiration.  But we think that the past will be accessible to us if we can accumulate sufficient evidence.

Some of the ancients knew better.  Josephus wrote that “the prophets alone had this privilege [writing history], obtaining their knowledge of the most remote and ancient history through the inspiration that they owed to God, and committing to writing an account of the events of their own time just as they occurred.”

Any sight beyond the present requires divine inspiration.  Discerning the shape of the past is as much a product of divination as foreseeing the shape of the future.