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'''Prehistory''', traditionally, has meant the era before written documents. For "western civilization," this period had ended about five thousand years ago.  In the Americas, it ended with the arrival of the Europeans.  For East Asia, it ended in the 13th century BC, in South Asia a millennium later. The term "prehistory" was widely used in this way (meaning the era before written documents) during the period that the discipline of history was professionalizing in order to distinguish the discipline from other para-historical disciplines such as archeology, anthropology, biology, and geology, that while historical in descriptive method, did not use written documents as their data source. In the past thirty or so years, historians have become more sophisticated in their methods and have developed interpretative frameworks and tools to allow them to begin to understand and integrate non-written data into the historical record.
'''Prehistory''' is defined by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' as the period of time before written records began. The transition from prehistory to [[history]] has occurred gradually at different times in different places. The essential sources of prehistoric information include [[archaeology]], [[anthropology]], [[biology]] and [[geology]]. In recent times, historians have developed methods of assimilating this information into the historical record so that credible theories now exist about events preceding the written record. Prehistory is essentially about early human existence, based largely on archaeological and anthropological findings, but there have been extensive researches into the prehistory of Earth, using geological evidence, and pre-human life, based on biological findings.
 
==Notes==
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==Sources==
* Oxford University: ''Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition''. Oxford University Press (2004).

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Prehistory is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the period of time before written records began. The transition from prehistory to history has occurred gradually at different times in different places. The essential sources of prehistoric information include archaeology, anthropology, biology and geology. In recent times, historians have developed methods of assimilating this information into the historical record so that credible theories now exist about events preceding the written record. Prehistory is essentially about early human existence, based largely on archaeological and anthropological findings, but there have been extensive researches into the prehistory of Earth, using geological evidence, and pre-human life, based on biological findings.

Notes

Sources

  • Oxford University: Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition. Oxford University Press (2004).
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