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 had 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.
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.
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 do not 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" (e.g.
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 is the date when
written historical records become a useful academic resource, varies from region to region. In
Egypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around
3200 BC whereas in
New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently,
1900.
See also
External links
Latin}}}
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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Writing system: Greek alphabet
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Official language of: Greece
Cyprus
European Union
recognised as minority language in parts of:
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History is the study of the past, focused on human activity and leading up to the present day.[1] More precisely, history is the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race [1]
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Recorded history can be defined as history that has been written down or recorded by the use of language, whereas history is a more general term referring simply to information about the past.[1] It starts in the 4th millennium BC, with the invention of writing.
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Southern France (or the South of France), colloquially known as Le Midi, is a loosely defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean Sea, Italy, and Switzerland south of the
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French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
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Centuries: 18th century -
19th century - 20th century
1800s 1810s 1820s -
1830s - 1840s 1850s 1860s
1830 1831 1832 1833 1834
1835 1836 1837 1838 1839
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Events and trends
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Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
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Sir Daniel Wilson (5 January, 1816 – 6 August, 1892) was a British-born Canadian archaeologist, ethnologist and author.
Wilson was born and educated in Edinburgh, and after acting as secretary of the Edinburgh Society of Antiquaries, went to Toronto as Professor of
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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1820s 1830s 1840s - 1850s - 1860s 1870s 1880s
1848 1849 1850 - 1851 - 1852 1853 1854
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Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
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The Universe is defined as the summation of all particles and energy that exist and the space-time in which all events occur. Based on observations of the portion of the Universe that is observable, physicists attempt to describe the whole of space-time, including all matter and
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Life (Biota)Domains and Kingdoms
- Life on Earth (Gaeabionta)
- Nanobes
..... Click the link for more information. EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001. Their greatest hit, their debut single "time after time", peaked at #13 in the Oricon singles chart.
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Dinosauria *Owen, 1842
Orders & Suborders
- Ornithischia
- Cerapoda
- Thyreophora
- Saurischia
..... Click the link for more information. CAVEman is a 4D high-resolution model of a functioning human elaborated by University of Calgary. It resides in a cube-shaped virtual reality room, like a cave, also known as the "research Holodeck", in which the human model floats in space, projected from three walls and the floor
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- Palaeontology redirects here. For the scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal).
Paleontology,
palaeontology or
palæontology (from Greek:
paleo, "ancient";
ontos..... Click the link for more information. Biology (from Greek: βίος, bio, "life"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), also referred to as the biological sciences, is the scientific study of life.
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Palynology is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs, including pollen, spores, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter (POM) and kerogen found in sedimentary rocks and sediments.
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Oceanic crust 0-20 Ma
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Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the study of ancient or traditional astronomies in their cultural context, utilising archaeological and anthropological evidence.
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Anthropology (from Greek: ἄνθρωπος, anthropos, "human being"; and λόγος, logos, "speech" lit. to talk about human beings) is the study of humanity.
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twentieth century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. Some historians consider the era from about 1914 to 1991 to be the Short Twentieth Century.
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“Historians” redirects here. For the actual profession, see Historian.
..... Click the link for more information. history of Earth covers approximately 4.6 billion years (4,567,000,000 years), from Earth’s formation out of the solar nebula to the present. This article presents a broad overview, summarizing the leading, most current scientific theories.
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Physical cosmology - Age of the universe
- Big Bang
- Blueshift
- Comoving distance
- Cosmic microwave background
- Dark energy
- Dark matter
- FLRW metric
- Friedmann equations
- Galaxy formation
- Hubble's law
- Inflation
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The following list is obsolete.Please make no further additions to the list.
For scientists and scholars of anthropology,
refer to the category .
H
- Horatio Hale
- Peter Hammond
- Michael Harkin
- Michael Harner
- John P.
..... Click the link for more information. History is the study of the past, focused on human activity and leading up to the present day.[1] More precisely, history is the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race [1]
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