Protohistory Explained

Protohistory is the period between prehistory and written history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures that have developed writing have noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings.

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 they can provide a secondary historical source for even earlier events. Colonial sites involving a literate group and a nonliterate group are also studied as protohistoric situations.

The term can also refer to a period in which fragmentary or external historical documents, not necessarily including a developed writing system, have been found. For instance, the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, the Yayoi^[1], recorded by the Chinese, and the Mississippian groups, recorded by early European explorers, are protohistoric.

Use of term

In The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe,^[2] an article^[3] by Timothy Taylor stated:

In the abstract of a later paper on "slavery in the first millennium Aegean, Carpatho-Balkan and Pontic regions",^[4] Taylor, primarily an archaeologist, stated,

For other examples, see also the writings of Brian M. Fagan on the protohistory of North America^[5] and the work of Muhammed Abdul Nayeem on that of the Arabian Peninsula^[6]

Chronology

As with prehistory, determining when a culture may be considered prehistoric or protohistoric is sometimes difficult for anthropologists. Data varies 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 and is based on the technological advancement of a particular people with regard to metallurgy:

• 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 barbarian tribes mentioned by European and Asian writers. Many protohistoric peoples also feature in prehistory and in history:

• Alans^[7]
• Balts
• Bulgars
• Celts
• Dacians^[8]
• Erie^[9]
• Gauls^[10]
• Germanic peoples^[11]
• Huns^[12]
• Kofun^[13]
• Magyars
• Mosopelea^[14]
• Timucua
• Numidians
• Parthians
• Sarmatians
• Scythians
• Slavs
• Susquehannock^[15]
• Thracians
• Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea
• Yamatai (Japan)
• Yarlung dynasty (Tibet)

See also

• Ancient history
• , recorded in Sumerian records, possibly identical with the Indus civilisation
• The Collection of Pre- and Protohistoric Artifacts at the University of Jena

References

1. Bahn, Paul (ed.) The Penguin Archaeology Guide Penguin Books Ltd (29 Nov 2001) p. 368
2. Book: Cunliffe, Barry . The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe . 2001 . Oxford University Press . Oxford . 978-0-19-285441-4 .
3. Book: Taylor, Timothy. The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe. registration. 1994. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 373–410. 978-0-19-814385-7 . Timothy Taylor (archaeologist). Cunliffe, Barry. Thracians, Scythians and Dacians.
4. Timothy Taylor . Believing the Ancients: Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Later Prehistoric Eurasia . World Archaeology . 33 . 1 . 27–43 . World Archaeology, Vol. 33, No. 1, The Archaeology of Slavery (Jun., 2001), pp. 27–43 . 2001 . 827887 . 10.1080/00438240120047618 . 162250553 .
5. Book: Fagan, Brian . Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent . 2005 . 4th . Thames & Hudson . London . 978-0-500-28532-9 . registration .
6. Book: Nayeem . Muhammed Abdul . Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula (5 volumes) . 1990 . Hyderabad Pub. . Hyderabad.
7. Web site: Alani. Encyclopædia Britannica. March 12, 2016.
8. Web site: Herodotus. The Histories. Sacred Texts.
9. Web site: Sultzman. Lee. Erie. Dick Shovel.
10. Web site: Gaul - World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia.
11. Germanic Races and Languages . VII . Van Rhyn . G. A. F. . 1 .
12. Book: Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. . Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen . 1973 . The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture . Max Knight . University of California Press . 0-520-01596-7 .
13. Book: Kōzō , Yamamura . John Whitney Hall . The Cambridge history of Japan . Cambridge University Press . 1997 .
14. Web site: Mid-America : an historical review.. Internet Archive . 2015-07-16 . 228.
15. Web site: Where are the Susquehannock. https://web.archive.org/web/20100109141308/http://susquehannock.brokenclaw.net/susquehannock. dead . 9 January 2010. The Susquehannock Fire Ring. 13 March 2016.