Prehistory is the vast span of the human past that precedes written records, running from the first stone tools made by early hominins through the emergence of anatomically modern humans and the eventual invention of agriculture and settled life. Because there are no documents from most of this era, everything historians know about it comes from archaeology, palaeoanthropology and comparative studies of surviving oral cultures, rather than from the words of people who lived through it. Prehistory is not a single uniform stretch of time. It covers hunting and gathering societies that endured for hundreds of thousands of years relatively unchanged alongside the Neolithic Revolution, when farming, permanent settlement and the domestication of animals transformed human life in a comparatively short span. The era ends, by convention, wherever a society first produces texts that survive, which is why prehistory closes at very different calendar dates in different parts of the world.
Facts
Disputed
Start YearConventionally dated to the earliest known stone tools, the Lomekwian industry at Lomekwi, Kenya. Some historians instead begin prehistory with the appearance of the genus Homo around 2.5 million years ago, or with anatomically modern humans around 300,000 years ago. There is no single agreed starting point, only a shared sense that prehistory has no fixed beginning. End YearConventionally marked by the earliest Sumerian cuneiform writing in Mesopotamia, around 3200 BCE. Because writing was invented independently at different times in different regions, in Egypt around 3100 BCE, in China around 1200 BCE, and in Mesoamerica later still, prehistory does not end everywhere at once. The boundary is regional, not global. Geographic ScopeGlobal in principle, since every human society has a prehistoric phase, but the specific boundary dates conventionally cited, and the archaeological record used to study them, are heaviest for East Africa, where the earliest stone tools and hominin fossils are concentrated, and for the Near East and Europe, where excavation has been most extensive. 1 Prehistory
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FAQs
What do historians call a culture that others wrote about before it had its own writing?
It is often called protohistory.
Historians often call that period the protohistory of the culture. It covers the time when a culture is written about by others but has not yet developed its own writing system. The term matters because writing spread gradually across the globe, so the end of prehistory came at different times in different places.
Connections
Includes
Source Settlement of the Americas, Wikipedia
Source Uruk period, Wikipedia
Source Wikipedia: Indus Valley Civilisation
Placed in its broad period by the atlas SubLabel and dated range
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Placed in its broad period by the atlas SubLabel and dated range
Placed in its broad period by the atlas SubLabel and dated range
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Placed in its broad period by the atlas SubLabel and dated range
Placed in its broad period by the atlas SubLabel and dated range
In the Other Atlases
Era Of Origin For
Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: originating in this era.
Source Oklahoma State University, Department of Animal and Food Sciences: Devon Cattle - Breeds of LivestockBreed historyQuote, Breed history
In fact some authorities consider the Devon's origin to be prehistoric, the assumption being that the breed descended directly from Bos lonqifrons, the smaller type of aboriginal cattle in Britain.
Also in Architecture and Design Atlas: originating in this era.
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Cambridge Ancient History
Cambridge University PressVol. I, Part 1, prehistoric background chapters
Wikipedia
WikipediaIncludes: The Paleolithic Period, Paleolithic, in relation to Prehistory
a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools.
Includes: The Neolithic Period, Neolithic, in relation to Prehistory
the final division of the Stone Age in Asia, Europe and Africa.
View the Source Settlement of the Americas, Wikipedia
Includes: Peopling of the Americas, Lead paragraphQuote, Includes: Peopling of the Americas, Lead paragraph
It is believed that the peopling of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers (Paleo-Indians) entered North America
Prehistory (Wikipedia)
In Group: Eras Beginning Before 3300 BCE, Lead paragraphQuote, In Group: Eras Beginning Before 3300 BCE, Lead paragraph
Prehistory, sometimes referred to as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago
Uruk period, Wikipedia
Includes: Rise of Sumerian City-States, LeadQuote, Includes: Rise of Sumerian City-States, Lead
The Uruk period (c. 4000/3900 to 3300/3100 BC; also known as Protoliterate period) is a period of the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age in Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East.
Wikipedia: Indus Valley Civilisation
WikipediaIncludes: Rise of the Indus Valley Civilization, LeadQuote, Includes: Rise of the Indus Valley Civilization, Lead
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
End Year
A significant strand of historiography, particularly work engaging with Indigenous and oral-tradition societies, has challenged the writing-based prehistory and history boundary itself, arguing it implicitly frames societies that preserved their past through oral tradition rather than writing as existing outside history proper. On this view, the convention that prehistory ends where writing begins encodes a bias toward literate, state-organized societies rather than describing a genuine universal transition, and the boundary recorded here should be read as a convenience of the documentary record available to historians, not a claim about which societies possessed history.
A dissenting reading, from Historiographical critique of the prehistory/history divideEncyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
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