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Prehistory refers to the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. Protohistory refers to the transition period between prehistory and history, after the advent of literacy in a society but before the writings of the first historians .
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.
These can be divided broadly into prehistorical periods and historical periods (when written records began to be kept). In archaeology and anthropology , prehistory is subdivided into the three-age system , this list includes the use of the three-age system as well as a number of various designation used in reference to sub-ages within the ...
3,200 years ago (1200 BC): Oracle bone script, first written records in Old Chinese; 3,050–2,800 years ago (1050 BC to 800 BC): Alphabetic writing; the Phoenician alphabet spreads around the Mediterranean; 2,300 years ago (300 BC): Maya script, the only known full writing system developed in the Americas, emerges.
The date used as the end of the ancient era is arbitrary. The transition period from Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages is known as Late Antiquity.Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's ...
Prehistory, the period before written records, makes up the bulk of human experience; over 99% of human experience occurred during the Paleolithic period alone. Prehistoric cultures spanned the globe and existed for over two and a half million years; their religious practices were many and varied, and the study of them is difficult due to the ...
History – records of past events and the way things were. It is also a field responsible for the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about the past. History, by period (See also Timeline of world history) Prehistory – events occurring before recorded history (that is, before written records).
The period in which prehistoric archaeology covers is most often the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages, within each of these ages periods such as the Neolithic within the Stone age are explored deeply. In Western Europe the prehistoric period ends with Roman colonisation in 43 AD, [ 28 ] [ 29 ] with some non-Romanised areas the period does not end ...