Protohistory - Citizendia

Protohistory refers to a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings. Stone Age Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens, Early human migrations "Paleolithic" History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic A Civilization is a society in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements For example, in Europe, the Celts and the Germanic tribes may be considered to have been protohistoric when they began appearing in Greek and Roman texts. Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC

Protohistoric may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians. traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write or the ability to use Language to read, write, listen, The preservation of oral traditions may complicate matters as these can provide a secondary historical source for even earlier events. Colonial sites involving a literate group and a non-literate group, are also studied as protohistoric situations.

1 Usage of the term
2 Chronology
3 Civilizations and peoples
4 References
5 See also

Usage of the term

In The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe^[1], an article^[2] by Timothy Taylor says,

“

Because of the existence in some but not all societies of historical writing during the first millennium BC, the period has often been termed 'protohistoric' instead of prehistoric. Timothy Taylor (born 1960 is a lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Bradford in the UK and an author of popular books on Anthropology. Of course, the understanding of the past gained through archaeology is broadly different in nature to understanding derived from historical texts. Having both sorts of evidence is a boon and a challenge.

”

In the abstract of a later paper on "slavery in the first millennium Aegean, Carpatho-Balkan and Pontic regions"^[3], Taylor, who is primarily an archaeologist, says,

“

I have taken the rather unusual step of trusting what the classical authors tell us they knew.

”

For other examples, see also the writings of Brian Fagan on the protohistory of North America^[4] and the work of Muhammed Abdul Nayeem on that of the Arabian Peninsula^[5]

Chronology

As with prehistory, determining when a culture may be considered prehistoric or protohistoric is sometimes difficult for the archaeologist. Brian Murray Fagan is an author of popular Archaeology books as well as being Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos Data vary considerably from culture to culture, region to region, and even from one system of reckoning dates to another.

In its simplest form, protohistory follows the same chronology as prehistory, based on the technological advancement of a particular people with regard to metallurgy:

The Copper Age or Chalcolithic
The Bronze Age
The Iron Age

Civilizations and peoples

The best known protohistoric civilizations and ethnic groups are those for whom the term was originally coined: the European barbarian tribes. Metallurgy is a domain of Materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their The Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos + lithos ' Copper stone' period or Copper Age period known as the '''Eneolithic''' ('''Æneolithic''' is a 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 This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived Many of these peoples of course also experienced periods of prehistory and history.

References

^ Cunliffe, Barry (2001). The Alans or Alani (occasionally but more rarely termed Alauni or Halani) were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people The Bulgars (also Bolgars or proto-Bulgarians) were a seminomadic people probably of Turkic descent originally from Central Asia, Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic The Helvetii were a Celtic tribe and the main occupants of the Swiss plateau in the 1st century BC The Huns were an early confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads with a Turkic core of aristocracy Hungarians (or Magyars, magyarok are an Ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. Numidia (202 BC – 46 BC was an ancient Berber kingdom in present-day Algeria and part of Tunisia ( North Africa) that later alternated Parthia ( Middle Persian: اشکانیان Ashkâniân) was an Iranian civilization situated in the northeastern part of modern Iran The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic "Thracians" also refers to modern inhabitants of Thrace, regardless of ethnicity The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285441-4.
^ Timothy Taylor (1994). "Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, , 800 BC-AD 300".
^ Timothy Taylor (2001). "Believing the Ancients: Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Later Prehistoric Eurasia". . World Archaeology, Vol. 33, No. 1, The Archaeology of Slavery (Jun. , 2001), pp. 27-43 Retrieved on 2007-05-13. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
^ Fagan, Brian (2005). Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent, 4th, London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0500285329.
^ Nayeem (Ed. ), Muhammed Abdul (1990). Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula (5 volumes). Hyderabad: Hyderabad Pub. .

Contents

Usage of the term

Chronology

Civilizations and peoples

References

See also