Everything about Prehistory totally explained
» For a timeline of events in the early history of the universe and prehistoric Earth, see Early prehistory.
Prehistory (
Latin,
præ = before
Greek, ιστορία =
history) is a term often used to describe the period before
written history.
Paul Tournal originally coined the term
Pré-historique in describing the finds he'd made in the caves of
southern France. It came into use in
French in the 1830s to describe the time before writing, and was introduced into
English by
Daniel Wilson in 1851.
Prehistory can be said to date back to the beginning of the
universe itself, although the term is most often used to describe periods when there was
life on
Earth;
dinosaurs can be described as prehistoric animals and
cavemen are described as prehistoric people. Usually the context implies what
geologic or
prehistoric time period is discussed, f.e. "prehistoric
miocene apes", about 23 - 5,5 My ago, or "
Middle Palaeolithic Homo sapiens", 200000 - 30000 years ago.
Because, by definition, there are no written records from prehistoric times, (or at least there are none known to still exist down to this day) the information we know about the time period is informed by the fields of
paleontology,
biology,
palynology,
geology,
archaeoastronomy,
anthropology,
archaeology and other natural and social sciences. In societies where the introduction of writing is relatively recent,
oral histories, knowledge of the past handed down from generation to generation, contain records of "prehistoric" times.
The term became less strictly defined in the 20th century as the boundary between history (interpretation of written and oral records) and other disciplines became less rigid. Indeed today most
historians rely on evidence from many areas and don't necessarily restrict themselves to the historical period and written, oral or other symbolically encoded sources of communication; in addition, the term "history" is increasingly used in place of "prehistory" (for example
History of Earth,
history of the universe). Nevertheless, the distinction remains important to many scholars, particularly in the social sciences. The primary researchers into
Human prehistory are prehistoric
archaeologists and physical
anthropologists who use excavation, geographic survey, and scientific analysis to reveal and interpret the nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples.
Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of
chronology but in the way it deals with the activities of
archaeological cultures rather than named
nations or
individuals. Restricted to material remains rather than written records (and indeed only those remains that have survived), prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, the reference terms used by prehistorians such as
Neanderthal or
Iron Age are modern, arbitrary labels, the precise definition of which is often subject to discussion and argument.
The date marking the end of prehistory, that's the date when
written historical records become a useful academic resource, varies from region to region. In
Egypt it's generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BCE whereas in
New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, 1900.
Stone Age
Paleolithic
"Paleolithic" means "Old Stone Age." This was the earliest period of the
Stone Age. The
Lower Paleolithic predates
Homo sapiens, beginning with
Homo habilis and the earliest use of stone tools some 2.5 million years ago.
Homo sapiens originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the
Middle Paleolithic.
Sometime during the Middle Paleolithic, humans also developed
language,
music,
early art, as well as systematic
burial of the dead.
Humans spread from East Africa to the Near East some 80 millennia ago, and further to southern
Asia and
Australasia some 60 millennia ago, northwestwards into
Europe and eastwards into
Central Asia some 40 millennia ago, and further east to
the Americas from ca. 15 millennia ago. The
Upper Paleolithic is taken to begin some 40 millennia ago, with the appearance of "high" culture. Expansion to
North America and
Oceania took place at the climax of the most recent
Ice Age, when today's temperate regions were extremely inhospitable. By the end of the Ice Age some 12,000
BP, humans had colonised nearly all the ice-free parts of the globe.
Throughout the Paleolithic, humans generally lived as
nomadic
hunter-gatherers.
Hunter-gatherer societies have tended to be very small and egalitarian, though hunter-gatherer societies with abundant resources or advanced food-storage techniques have sometimes developed a sedentary lifestyle, complex social structures such as chiefdoms, and
social stratification; and long-distance contacts may be possible, as in the case of
Indigenous Australian "highways."
Mesolithic
The "Mesolithic," or "Middle Stone Age" (from the
Greek "
mesos," "middle," and "
lithos," "stone") was a period in the development of
human technology between the
Paleolithic and
Neolithic periods of the
Stone Age.
The Mesolithic period began at the end of the
Pleistocene epoch, some 10,000 BP, and ended with
the introduction of agriculture, the date of which varied by geographic region. In some areas, such as the
Near East, agriculture was already underway by the end of the
Pleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short and poorly defined. In areas with limited
glacial impact, the term "
Epipaleolithic" is sometimes preferred.
Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the
last ice age ended have a much more evident Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours which are preserved in the material record, such as the
Maglemosian and
Azilian 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 to
middens. In
forested areas, the first signs of
deforestation have been found, although this would only begin in earnest during the
Neolithic, when more space was needed for
agriculture.
The Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small composite
flint tools —
microliths and
microburins.
Fishing tackle, stone
adzes and wooden objects, for example
canoes and
bows, have been found at some sites. These technologies first occur in
Africa, associated with the
Azilian cultures, before spreading to
Europe through the
Ibero-Maurusian culture of
Spain and
Portugal, and the
Kebaran culture of
Palestine. Independent discovery isn't always ruled out.
Neolithic
"Neolithic" means "New Stone Age." This was a period of primitive
technological and
social development, toward the end of the "
Stone Age." Beginning in the 10th millennium BCE (12,000 BP), the Neolithic period saw the development of early
villages,
agriculture,
animal domestication and
tools.
A major change, described by prehistorian
Vere Gordon Childe as the "
Agricultural Revolution," occurred about the 10th millennium BCE with
the adoption of agriculture. The
Sumerians first began farming ca. 9500 BCE. By 7000 BCE, agriculture had spread to
India; by 6000 BCE, to Egypt; by 5000 BCE, to China. About 2700 BCE, 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 BCE. 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 BCE. After bronze, the Eastern
Mediterranean region,
Middle East and
China saw the introduction of
iron tools and weapons.
The Americas may not have had metal tools until the
Chavín horizon (900 BCE). 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. Some digs suggest that
steel may have been produced there before it was developed in Europe.
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, didn't practice agriculture until relatively recent times.
Before 1800, many populations didn't belong to
states. Scientists disagree as to whether the term "
tribe" should be applied to the kinds of societies that these people lived in. Many tribal societies, in Europe and elsewhere, transformed into states when they were threatened, or otherwise impinged on, by existing states. Examples are the
Marcomanni,
Poland and
Lithuania. Some "tribes," such as the
Kassites and the
Manchus, conquered states and were absorbed by them.
Agriculture made possible complex societies —
civilizations. States and markets emerged. Technologies enhanced people's ability to control
nature and to develop
transport and
communication.
Bronze Age
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 3,000 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've direct written accounts, since the invention of
writing co-incides with its early beginnings.
Iron Age
In
archaeology, the
Iron Age was the stage in the development
ferrous metallurgy. The adoption of
iron coincided with other changes in some past societies often including differing 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
Anthropology,
Archaeology,
Genetics,
Geology, or
Linguistics. They are all subject to revision due to new discoveries or improved calculations. BP stands for "Before Present."
Paleolithic
- c. 120,000 BP - Modern Homo sapiens appears in Africa.
- c. 300,000 BP to 30,000 BP. Mousterian (Neanderthal) culture in Europe.
- c. 75,000 BP - Toba Volcano supereruption.
- c. 73,000 BP - Homo sapiens move from Africa to Asia.
Mesolithic
- c. 32,0000 BP - Aurignacian culture begins in Europe.
- c. 30,000 BP / 28,000 BCE - A herd of Reindeer is slaughtered and butchered by humans in the Vezere Valley in what today is France.
- c. 28,500 BCE - New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia.
- c. 28,000 BP - 20,000 BP - Graveltian period in Europe. Harpoons, needles and saws invented.
- c. 26,000 BP / c. 24,000 BCE - Women around the world use fibers to make baby-carriers, clothes, bags, baskets and nets.
- c. 25,000 BP / 23,000 BCE - 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 BCE - Chatelperronian Culture in France.
- c. 16,000 BP / 14,000 BCE - Wisent sculpted in clay deep inside the cave now known as Le Tuc d'Audoubert in the French Pyrinees 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.
Neolithic
- c. 8000 BCE - In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq, cultivation of barley and wheat begins. At first they're used for beer, gruel, and soup, eventually for bread. . Around this time, a round stone tower, about 30 feet high and 30 feet in diameter (100 meters high by 100 meters in diameter) is built in Jericho.
Chalcolithic
- c. 3700 BCE - Cuneiform writing appears and records begin to be kept. Prehistory ends, History begins.
Bronze Age
;Iron Age
Further Information
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