Prehistory - 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 and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems
Start and End Dates
Start and end dates vary widely from region to region. For example, in European regions, prehistory cannot begin before c. 1.3 million years ago, which is when the first signs of human presence have been found; however, Africa and Asia contain sites dated as early as c. 2.5 and 1.8 million years ago, respectively. Depending on the date when relevant records become a useful academic resource, their end date also varies.
For example, in Egypt, it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3100 BCE, whereas in New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, in the 1870s, when the Russian anthropologist Nicholai 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 of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome had neighboring cultures, including the Celts and to a lesser extent the Etruscans, with little or no writing, and historians must decide how much weight to give to the often highly prejudiced accounts of these protohistoric cultures in Greek and Roman literature.