The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing system, is often known as theprotohistory of the culture. By definition,[2] there are no written records from human prehistory, which can only be known from materialarchaeological andanthropological evidence: prehistoric materials and human remains. These were at first understood by the collection offolklore and by analogy with pre-literate societies observed in modern times. The key step to understanding prehistoric evidence is dating, and reliable dating techniques have developed steadily since the nineteenth century.[3] The most common of these dating techniques isradiocarbon dating.[4] Further evidence has come from the reconstruction ofancient spoken languages. More recent techniques include forensic chemical analysis to reveal the use and provenance of materials, and genetic analysis of bones to determine kinship and physical characteristics of prehistoric peoples.
Massive stone pillars atGöbekli Tepe, in southeast Turkey, erected for ritual use by earlyNeolithic people 11,000 years agoA nineteenth century concept of early humans in a wilderness
Beginning and end
The beginning of prehistory is normally taken to be marked by human-like beings appearing on Earth.[5][6] The date marking its end is typically defined as the advent of the contemporarywritten historical record.[7][8]
Both dates consequently vary widely from region to region. For example, inEuropean regions, prehistory cannot begin beforec. 1.3 million years ago, which is when the first signs of human presence have been found; however,Africa andAsia contain sites dated as early asc. 2.5 and 1.8 million years ago, respectively.[9] Depending on the date when relevant records become a useful academic resource,[10] its end date also varies. For example, inEgypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3100 BCE, whereas inNew Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, in the 1870s, when the Russian anthropologistNicholai Miklukho-Maklai spent several years living among native peoples, and described their way of life in a comprehensive treatise. In Europe the relatively well-documented classical cultures ofAncient Greece andAncient Rome had neighbouring cultures, including theCelts[11] and theEtruscans, with little writing.[12] Historians debate how much weight to give to the sometimes biased accounts of these protohistoric cultures found in Greek and Roman literature.[11]
In dividing up human prehistory in Eurasia, historians typically use the three-age system, whereas scholars of pre-human time periods typically use thewell-definedgeologic record and its internationally definedstratum base within thegeologic time scale. The three-age system is theperiodization of human prehistory into three consecutivetime periods, named for their predominant tool-making technologies:Stone Age,Bronze Age andIron Age.[13] In some areas, there is also a transition period between Stone Age and Bronze Age, theChalcolithic or Copper Age.[14]
The notion of "prehistory" emerged during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word "primitive" to describe societies that existed before written records.[15] The word "prehistory" first appeared in English in 1836 in theForeignQuarterly Review.[16]
The geologic time scale for pre-human time periods, and thethree-age system for human prehistory, were systematised during the nineteenth century in the work of British, French, German, and Scandinaviananthropologists,archaeologists, andantiquarians.[17][13] An old conception of history is that without written records there could be no history. The most common conception today is that history is based on evidence, however the concept of prehistory has not been completely discarded.[18]: 1
Means of research
The main source of information for prehistory is archaeology (a branch of anthropology), but some scholars are beginning to make more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences.[19][20][21]
The primary researchers into human prehistory are archaeologists andphysical anthropologists who use excavation, geologic and geographic surveys, and other scientific analysis to reveal and interpret the nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples.[6] Human populationgeneticists andhistorical linguists are also providing valuable insight.[5] Cultural anthropologists help provide context for societal interactions, by which objects of human origin pass among people, allowing an analysis of any article that arises in a human prehistoric context.[5] Therefore, data about prehistory is provided by a wide variety of natural and social sciences, such asanthropology,archaeology,archaeoastronomy,comparative linguistics,biology,geology,molecular genetics,paleontology,palynology,physical anthropology, and many others.
Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of itschronology, but in the way it deals with the activities ofarchaeological cultures rather than namednations orindividuals. Restricted to material processes, remains, and artefacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that prehistorians use, such as "Neanderthal" or "Iron Age", are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate.
The concept of a "Stone Age" is found useful in the archaeology of most of the world, although in thearchaeology of the Americas it is called by different names and begins with aLithic stage, or sometimesPaleo-Indian. The sub-divisions described below are used for Eurasia, and not consistently across the whole area.
The early part of the Palaeolithic is called theLower Paleolithic (as in excavations it appears underneath the Upper Paleolithic), beginning with the earliest stone tools dated to around 3.3 million years ago at theLomekwi site in Kenya.[23] These tools predate the genusHomo and were probably used byKenyanthropus.[24] Evidence ofcontrol of fire by early hominins during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim is thatH. erectus orH. ergaster made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site atBnot Ya'akov Bridge,Israel. The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, have a light source, deter animals at night and meditate.[25][26]
EarlyHomo sapiens originated some 300,000 years ago,[27] ushering in theMiddle Palaeolithic. Anatomic changes indicating modern language capacity also arise during the Middle Palaeolithic.[28] During the Middle Palaeolithic Era, there is the first definitive evidence of human use of fire. Sites in Zambia have charred logs, charcoal and carbonized plants, that have been dated to 180,000 BP.[29] The systematicburial of the dead,music,prehistoric art, and the use of increasingly sophisticated multi-part tools are highlights of the Middle Paleolithic.
TheUpper Paleolithic extends from 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the first organized settlements and blossoming of artistic work.
Throughout the Palaeolithic, humans generally lived asnomadichunter-gatherers.Hunter-gatherer societies tended to be very small and egalitarian,[30] although hunter-gatherer societies with abundant resources or advanced food-storage techniques sometimes developed sedentary lifestyles with complex social structures such as chiefdoms,[31] andsocial stratification. Long-distance contacts may have been established, as in the case ofIndigenous Australian "highways" known assonglines.[32]
The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age (from theGreekmesos, 'middle', andlithos, 'stone'), was a period in the development of humantechnology between the Palaeolithic andNeolithic.
TheMesolithic period began with the retreat of glaciers at the end of thePleistocene epoch, some 10,000 BP, and ended withthe introduction of agriculture, the date of which varied by geographic region. In some areas, such as theNear East, agriculture was already underway by the end of thePleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short and poorly defined. In areas with limitedglacial impact, the term "Epipalaeolithic" is preferred.[33]
Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as thelast ice age ended have a much more evident Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. InNorthern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from themarshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours that are preserved in the material record, such as theMaglemosian andAzilian cultures. These conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BCE (6,000 BP) in northern Europe.
Remains from this period are few and far between, often limited tomiddens. In forested areas, the first signs ofdeforestation have been found, although this would only begin in earnest during the Neolithic, when more space was needed foragriculture.
The Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small compositeflint tools:microliths andmicroburins.Fishing tackle, stoneadzes, and wooden objects such ascanoes andbows have been found at some sites. These technologies first occur in Africa, associated with the Azilian cultures, before spreading to Europe through theIberomaurusian culture of Northern Africa and theKebaran culture of theLevant. However, independent discovery is not ruled out.
Neolithic
Entrance to the Ġgantija phase temple complex ofĦaġar Qim,Malta, 3900 BCE[34]An array of Neolithic artefacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools – Neolithic stone artefacts are by definition polished and, except for specialty items, not chipped
"Neolithic" means "New Stone Age", from about 10,200 BCE in some parts of the Middle East, but later in other parts of the world,[35] and ended between 4,500 and 2,000 BCE. Although there were several species of humans during thePaleolithic, by theNeolithic onlyHomo sapiens sapiens remained.[36] This was a period oftechnological andsocial developments which established most of the basic elements of historical cultures, such as the domestication of crops andanimals, and the establishment of permanent settlements and early chiefdoms. The era commenced with the beginning offarming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in theCopper Age orBronze Age; or, in some geographical regions, in theIron Age). The termNeolithic is commonly used in theOld World; its application to cultures in theAmericas andOceania is complicated by the fact standard progression from stone to metal tools, as seen in the Old World, does not neatly apply.[37]
Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which includedeinkorn wheat,millet andspelt, and the keeping ofdogs,sheep, andgoats. By about 6,900–6,400 BCE, it included domesticatedcattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use ofpottery. The Neolithic period saw the development of earlyvillages,agriculture, animaldomestication,tools, and the onset of the earliest recorded incidents of warfare.[38]
The monumental building at Luni sul Mignone inBlera, Italy, 3500 BCE
Settlements became more permanent, some with circular houses made ofmudbrick with a single room. Settlements might have a surrounding stone wall to keep domesticated animals in and hostile tribes out. Later settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest anancestor cult withpreserved skulls of the dead. TheVinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing.[39] Themegalithic temple complexes ofĠgantija are notable for their gigantic structures. Although some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms or even states, states evolved in Eurasia only with the rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic societies on the whole were relatively simple and egalitarian.[40] Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins which are ideal for fastening leather.Wool cloth andlinen might have become available during the later Neolithic,[41][42] as suggested by finds of perforated stones that (depending on size) may have served asspindle whorls orloom weights.[43][44][45]
In Old World archaeology, the "Chalcolithic", "Eneolithic", or "Copper Age" refers to a transitional period where earlycopper metallurgy appeared alongside the widespread use of stone tools. During this period, some weapons and tools were made of copper. This period was still largely Neolithic in character. It is a phase of theBronze Age before it was discovered that addingtin tocopper formed the harderbronze. The Copper Age is seen as a transition period between the Stone Age and Bronze Age.[46]
An archaeological site inSerbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of copper making at high temperature, from 7,500 years ago. The find in 2010 extends the known record of coppersmelting by about 800 years, and suggests that copper smelting may have been invented independently in separate parts of Asia and Europe at that time, rather than spreading from a single source.[47] The emergence ofmetallurgy may have occurred first in theFertile Crescent, where it gave rise to the Bronze Age in the4th millennium BCE (the traditional view), although finds from theVinča culture in Europe have now been securely dated to slightly earlier than those of the Fertile Crescent.Timna Valley contains evidence of copper mining 7,000 years ago.[48] The process of transition fromNeolithic to Chalcolithic in the Middle East is characterized in archaeological stone tool assemblages by a decline in high quality raw material procurement and use. North Africa and the Nile Valley imported its iron technology from theNear East and followed the Near Eastern course of Bronze Age andIron Age development.
The Bronze Age is the earliest period in which some civilizations reached the end of prehistory, by introducing written records. The Bronze Age, or parts thereof, are thus considered to be part of prehistory only for the regions and civilizations who developed a system of keeping written records during later periods. Theinvention of writing coincides in some areas with the beginnings of the Bronze Age. After the appearance of writing, people started creating texts including written records of administrative matters.[49]
The Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advancedmetalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting copper andtin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ores, and then combining them to castbronze. These naturally occurring ores typically includedarsenic as a common impurity. Tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes inWestern Asia before 3000 BCE. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies.[50] In this system, it follows theNeolithic in some areas of the world.
While copper is a common ore, deposits of tin are rare in theOld World, and often had to be traded or carried considerable distances from the few mines, stimulating the creation of extensive trading routes. In many areas as far apart as China and England, the valuable new material was used for weapons, but for a long time apparently not available for agricultural tools. Much of it seems to have been hoarded by social elites, and sometimes deposited in extravagant quantities, fromChinese ritual bronzes andIndian copper hoards, to Europeanhoards of unused axe-heads.
By the end of the Bronze Age large states, whose armies imposed themselves on people with a different culture, and are often called empires, had arisen in Egypt, China,Anatolia (theHittites), andMesopotamia, all of them literate.
The Iron Age is not part of prehistory for all civilizations who had introduced written records during the Bronze Age. Most remaining civilizations did so during the Iron Age, often through conquest by empires, which continued to expand during this period. For example, in most of Europe conquest by theRoman Empire means the term Iron Age is replaced by "Roman", "Gallo-Roman", and similar terms after the conquest. Even before conquest, many areas began to have a protohistory, as they were written about by literate cultures; theprotohistory of Ireland is an example.
In archaeology, the Iron Age refers to the advent offerrous metallurgy. The adoption ofiron coincided with other changes, often including more sophisticated agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles, which makes the archaeological Iron Age coincide with the "Axial Age" in the history of philosophy. Although iron ore is common, the metalworking techniques necessary to use iron are different from those needed for the metal used earlier, more heat is required.[51] Once the technical challenge had been solved, iron replaced bronze as its higher abundance meant armies could be armed much more easily with iron weapons.[52]
All dates are approximate and conjectural, obtained through research in the fields ofanthropology, archaeology,genetics,geology, orlinguistics. They are all subject to revision due to new discoveries or improved calculations. BP stands for "Before Present (1950)." BCE stands for "Before Common Era".
c. 26,000 BP / 24,000 BCE – People around the world use fibres to make baby-carriers, clothes, bags, baskets, and nets.[64]
c. 25,000 BP / 23,000 BCE –A settlement consisting of huts built of rocks andmammoth bones is founded near what is nowDolní Věstonice inMoravia in theCzech Republic. This is the oldest human permanent settlement that has been found by archaeologists.[65]
c. 23,000 BP / 21,000 BCE – Small-scale trial cultivation of plants inOhalo II, a hunter-gatherers' sedentary camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel.[66]
c. 16,000 BP / 14,000 BCE –Wisent (bison) sculpted in clay deep inside the cave now known asLe Tuc d'Audoubert in the FrenchPyrenees near what is now the border of Spain.[67]
c. 14,800 BP / 12,800 BCE – TheHumid Period begins in North Africa. The region that would later become theSahara is wet and fertile, and theaquifers are full.[68]
c. 8,000–7,000 BCE – In northernMesopotamia, now northernIraq, cultivation of barley and wheat begins. At first they are used forbeer,gruel, andsoup, eventually forbread.[72] In early agriculture at this time the planting stick is used, but it is replaced by a primitiveplough in subsequent centuries.[73] Around this time, a round stone tower, now preserved at about 8.5 meters high and 8.5 meters in diameter is built inJericho.[74]
c. 3,700 BCE –Pictographicproto-writing, known asproto-cuneiform, appears inSumer, and records begin to be kept. According to the majority of specialists, the first Mesopotamian writing (actually still pictographic proto-writing at this stage) was a tool for record-keeping that had little connection to the spoken language.[76]
c. 3,100 BCE –Skara Brae is constructed. This stone-built village consisted of ten clustered houses with stone hearths, beds, cupboards, and an ancient sewer system. This village was occupied for 600 years before being abandoned inc. 2,500 BCE.
c. 3,000 BCE –Stonehenge construction begins. In its first version, it consisted of a circular ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts.[77]
Simplified phylogeny ofHomo sapiens for the last two million yearsMap of Europe during theWürm glaciation 70–20 thousand years agoGlobal sea level during theLast Glacial PeriodMap of the world in 2000 BC showing thebronze working area
^Menéndez, Mario (2019).Prehistoria de la Península Ibérica: el progreso de la cognición, el mestizaje y las desigualdades durante más de un millón de años (in European Spanish). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. p. 25.ISBN978-84-9181-602-7.OCLC1120111673.
^McCall, Daniel (2005). "Introduction". In Philips, John Edward (ed.).Writing African History. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. Boydell & Brewer.ISBN978-1-58046-164-1.
^The Prehistory of Iberia: Debating Early Social Stratification and the State edited by María Cruz Berrocal, Leonardo García Sanjuán, Antonio Gilman. Pg 36.
^Historical Archaeology: Back from the Edge. Edited by Pedro Paulo A. Funari, Martin Hall, Sian Jones. p. 8.ISBN 9780415518888
^Through the Ages in Palestinian Archaeology: An Introductory Handbook. By Walter E. Ras. p. 49.ISBN 9781563380556
^Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy (2007). "Overview of Paleolithic Anthropology". In Henke, H. C. Winfried; Hardt, Thorolf; Tatersall, Ian (eds.).Handbook of Paleoanthropology. Vol. 3. Berlin; Heidelberg; New York: Springer. pp. 1943–1963.doi:10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_64.ISBN978-3-540-32474-4.
^Vanishing Voices : The Extinction of the World's Languages. By Daniel Nettle, Suzanne Romaine Merton Professor of English Language University of Oxford. pp. 102–103.
^Cook, M (2007). "The clay loom weight, in: Early Neolithic ritual activity, Bronze Age occupation and medieval activity at Pitlethie Road, Leuchars, Fife".Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal.13:1–23.
^Shea, J.J. (2003). "Neanderthals, competition and the origin of modern human behaviour in the Levant".Evolutionary Anthropology.12 (4):173–187.doi:10.1002/evan.10101.S2CID86608040.
^Sandra Bowdler."The Pleistocene Pacific".Published in 'Human settlement', in D. Denoon (ed) The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders. pp. 41–50. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.University of Western Australia. Archived fromthe original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved26 February 2008.
^Gary Presland,The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region, (revised edition), Harriland Press, 1997.ISBN978-0-646-33150-8. Presland says on p. 1: "There is some evidence to show that people were living in theMaribyrnong River valley, near present dayKeilor, about 40,000 years ago."
^Gene S. Stuart, "Ice Age Hunters: Artists in Hidden Cages." InMysteries of the Ancient World, a publication of the National Geographic Society, 1979. pp. 11–18.
^Kiple, Kenneth F. and Ornelas, Kriemhild Coneè, eds., The Cambridge World History of Food, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 83
^"No-Till: The Quiet Revolution", by David Huggins and John Reganold,Scientific American, July 2008, pp. 70–77.
^Fagan, Brian M, ed.The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996ISBN978-0-521-40216-3, p. 363.
^map in Daim and Neubauer 2005, p. 14; reprinted in Plath 2011, p. 24. Main distribution is between theDanube Bend and the middleElbe, say between Budapest and Brunswick (800 km). Including outliers, the area is somewhat larger, encompassing most ofCentral Europe, stretching over some 1100 km from theDanube-Drava confluence to the lower Rhine (Ruhr area).
^Glassner, Jean-Jacques.The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing In Sumer. Trans.Zainab Bahrani. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Ebook.
^Caroline Alexander, "Stonehenge",National Geographic, June 2008.
