prehistory

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prehistory,

period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to provide a coherent account. The study of prehistory is concerned with the activities of a society or culture, not of the individual, and is limited to the material evidence that has survived.

References in periodicals archive ?

From my perspective the key omission of the volume is a contemporary perspective of agriculture in South West Asia and China, home of the 'traditional view', as well as the almost unforgiveable absence of the Indian subcontinent, where systematic archaeobotany is revolutionizing our conceptions of agricultural prehistories.

Rethinking agriculture: Archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives

2) For Germany there is certainly an extensive literature focusing around the so-called "new social movements" and the prehistories of The Greens, most of it produced within sociology or political science.

Protest Movements in 1960s West Germany: A Social History of Dissent and Democracy

This work exemplifies the inter-disciplinary efforts necessary to fully understand island prehistories.