Prehistory

{|align=right |, England, erected by Neolithic peoples ca. 4500-4000 years ago. Archaeology is an important discipline for understanding prehistory.]] |- | |}

Prehistory (Latin, præ = before, historia = history/story) is the period before recorded history. Paul Tournal originally coined the term anté-historique in describing the finds he had made in the caves of southern France. It came into use in France in the 1830s to describe the time before writing, and the word "prehistoric" was introduced into English by Daniel Wilson in 1851. {| align="right" style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" | |}

The term "prehistory" can be used to refer to all time since the beginning of the universe, although it is more often used in referring to the period of time since life appeared on Earth, or even more specifically to the time since human-like beings appeared. In dividing up human prehistory, prehistorians typically use the three age system, whereas scholars of pre-human time periods typically use the well defined Rock record and its internationally defined stratum base within the geologic time scale. The three-age system is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective predominant tool-making technologies; the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.

The occurrence of written materials (and so the beginning of local "historic times") varies generally to cultures classified within either the late Bronze Age or within the Iron Age. Historians increasingly do not restrict themselves to evidence from written records and are coming to rely more upon evidence from the natural and social sciences, thereby blurring the distinction between the terms "history" and "prehistory." This view has recently been articulated by advocates of deep history.

Definition

Because, by definition, there are no written records from human prehistory, dating of prehistoric materials is particularly crucial to the enterprise. Clear techniques for dating were not well-developed until the 19th century.

The primary researchers into Human prehistory are prehistoric archaeologists and physical 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.]]

"Neolithic" means "New Stone Age." This was a period of primitive technological and social development, toward the end of the "Stone Age." The Neolithic period saw the development of early villages, agriculture, animal domestication, tools and the onset of the earliest recorded incidents of warfare. The Neolithic term is commonly used in the Old World, as its application to cultures in the Americas and Oceania that did not fully develop metal-working technology raises problems.

Agriculture

A major change, described by prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe as the "Agricultural Revolution," occurred about the 10th millennium BC with the adoption of agriculture. The Sumerians first began farming c. 9500 BC. By 7000 BC, agriculture had been developed in India and Peru separately; by 6000 BC, to Egypt; by 5000 BC, to China. About 2700 BC, agriculture had come to Mesoamerica.

Although attention has tended to concentrate on the Middle East's Fertile Crescent, archaeology in the Americas, East Asia and Southeast Asia indicates that agricultural systems, using different crops and animals, may in some cases have developed there nearly as early. The development of organised irrigation, and the use of a specialised workforce, by the Sumerians, began about 5500 BC. Stone was supplanted by bronze and iron in implements of agriculture and warfare. Agricultural settlements had until then been almost completely dependent on stone tools. In Eurasia, copper and bronze tools, decorations and weapons began to be commonplace about 3000 BC. After bronze, the Eastern Mediterranean region, Middle East and China saw the introduction of iron tools and weapons. [[Image:World 1000 BCE.png|thumb|right|300px|The technological and social state of the world, circa 1000 BC. ]] The Americas may not have had metal tools until the Chavín horizon (900 BC). The Moche did have metal armor, knives and tableware. Even the metal-poor Inca had metal-tipped plows, at least after the conquest of Chimor. However, little archaeological research has so far been done in Peru, and nearly all the khipus (recording devices, in the form of knots, used by the Incas) were burned in the Spanish conquest of Peru. As late as 2004, entire cities were still being unearthed.

The cradles of early civilizations were river valleys, such as the Euphrates and Tigris valleys in Mesopotamia, the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus valley in the Indian subcontinent, and the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys in China. Some nomadic peoples, such as the Indigenous Australians and the Bushmen of southern Africa, did not practice agriculture until relatively recent times.

Agriculture made possible complex societies — civilizations. States and markets emerged. Technologies enhanced people's ability to harness nature and to develop transport and communication.

Chalcolithic

In Old World archaeology, the "Chalcolithic", "Eneolithic" or "Copper Age" refers to a transitional period where early copper metallurgy appeared alongside the widespread use of stone tools.

Bronze Age

-drawn plow, Egypt, ca. 1200 BC.]] The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of copper ores, and then smelting those ores to cast bronze. These naturally occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before 3000 BC. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world.

The Bronze Age is the earliest period of which we have direct written accounts, since the invention of writing coincides with its early beginnings.

Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age refers to the advent of ferrous metallurgy. The adoption of iron coincided with other changes in some past cultures, 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.

Timeline of human prehistory

All dates are approximate and conjectural, obtained through research in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, genetics, geology, or linguistics. They are all subject to revision due to new discoveries or improved calculations. BP stands for "Before Present." ; Lower and Middle Paleolithic

c. 200,000 BP - Anatomically modern Homo sapiens appear in Africa.

c. 300,000 BP to 30,000 BP. Mousterian (Neanderthal) culture in Europe. c. 75,000 BP - Toba Volcano supereruption. c. 70,000 - 50,000 BP - Homo sapiens move from Africa to Asia. In the next millennia, these human groups' descendants move on to southern India, the Malay islands, Australia, Japan, China, Siberia, Alaska, and the northwestern coast of North America. c. 28,500 BCE - New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia.

c. 28,000 BP - 20,000 BP - Gravettian period in Europe. Harpoons, needles, and saws invented.

c. 26,000 BP / c. 24,000 BC - Women around the world use fibers to make baby-carriers, clothes, bags, baskets, and nets.

c. 25,000 BP / 23,000 BC - A hamlet consisting of huts built of rocks and of mammoth bones is founded in what is now Dolni Vestonice in Moravia in the Czech Republic. This is the oldest human permanent settlement that has yet been found by archaeologists. c. 20,000 BP or 18,000 BC - Chatelperronian culture in France. c. 16,000 BP / 14,000 BC - Wisent sculpted in clay deep inside the cave now known as Le Tuc d'Audoubert in the French Pyrenees near what is now the border of Spain. c. 14,800 BP / 12,800 BC - The Humid Period begins in North Africa. The region that would later become the Sahara is wet and fertile, and the Aquifers are full. ;Mesolithic ;Neolithic c. 8000 BC / 7000 BC - In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq, cultivation of barley and wheat begins. At first they are used for beer, gruel, and soup, eventually for bread. In early agriculture at this time, the Planting stick is used, but it is replaced by a primitive Plow in subsequent centuries. Around this time, a round stone tower, now preserved to about 8.5 meters high and 8.5 meters in diameter is built in Jericho. ;Chalcolithic

c. 3700 BC - Cuneiform writing appears and records begin to be kept.

c. 3000 BC - Stonehenge construction begins. In its first version, it consisted of a circular ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts.

By region

;Old World

Prehistoric Africa

* Predynastic Egypt

* Prehistoric Central North Africa

Prehistoric Asia

* East Asia:

** Prehistoric China

** Prehistoric Thailand

** Prehistoric Korea

** Japanese Paleolithic

** East Asian Bronze Age

** Chinese Bronze Age

* South Asia

** South Asian Stone Age

** Prehistory of Sri Lanka

* Prehistory of Central Asia

* Prehistoric Siberia

* Southwest Asia (Near East)

**Prehistory of Iran

** Aurignacian

** Natufian culture

** Ubaid period

** Uruk period

** Ancient Near East

Prehistoric Europe

* Prehistoric Caucasus

** Prehistoric Georgia

** Prehistoric Armenia

* Paleolithic Europe

* Neolithic Europe

* Bronze Age Europe

* Iron Age Europe

* Atlantic fringe

** Prehistoric Britain

** Prehistoric Ireland

** Prehistoric Iberia

* Prehistoric Balkans

;New World

Pre-Columbian Americas

* Prehistoric Southwestern Cultural Divisions

* 2nd millennium BC in North American history

* 1st millennium BC in North American history

* 1st millennium in North American history

Prehistoric Australia

See also

Archaeoastronomy

Archaeology

Paleoanthropology

Prehistoric migration

Archaic Homo sapiens

Behavioral modernity

Prehistoric art

Prehistoric religion

Prehistoric music

Prehistoric warfare

Prehistoric medicine

Periodization

Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures

Three-age system

Holocene

Younger Dryas

Band society

Lineage-bonded society

Pantribal sodalities

History of the family

References

External links

Submerged Landscapes Archaeological Network

The Neanderthal site at Veldwezelt-Hezerwater, Belgium.

North Pacific Prehistory is an academic journal specialising in Northeast Asian and North American archaeology.

Prehistory in Algeria and in Morocco

Early Humans a collection of resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library.

Category:Periods and stages in archaeology Category:Anthropology Category:Human evolution