HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
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. 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.
Protohistoric may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians. 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.
Contents |
In The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric EuropeCunliffe, Barry (2001). The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285441-4. , an articleTimothy Taylor (1994). "Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, , 800 BC-AD 300". 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. 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"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., 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 AmericaFagan, Brian (2005). Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent, 4th, London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0500285329. and the work of Muhammed Abdul Nayeem on that of the Arabian PeninsulaNayeem (Ed.), Muhammed Abdul (1990). Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula (5 volumes). Hyderabad: Hyderabad Pub..
As with prehistory, determining when a culture may be considered prehistoric or protohistoric is sometimes difficult for the archaeologist. 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 best known protohistoric civilizations and ethnic groups are those for whom the term was originally coined: the European barbarian tribes. Many of these peoples of course also experienced periods of prehistory and history.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
