Prehistory of Development

Prehistory (meaning "before history", or "before knowledge acquired by investigation", from the Latin word
for "before," pr, and historia) is the span of time before recorded history or the invention of writing systems.
Prehistory refers to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which
recorded history begins. More broadly, it can refer to all the time preceding human existence and the invention
of writing.

The notion of "prehistory" began to surface during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used
the word 'primitive' to describe societies that existed before written records. The first use of the word
prehistory in English, however, occurred in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836.

The term "prehistory" can refer to the vast span of time since the beginning of the Universe, but more often it
refers to the period since life appeared on Earth, or even more specifically to the time since human-like beings
appeared. In dividing up human prehistory, prehistorians typically use the three-age system, whereas scholars
of pre-human time periods typically use the well-defined geologic record and its internationally defined
stratum base within the geologic time scale. The three-age system is the periodization of human prehistory
into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective predominant tool-making technologies: the
Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. This system emerged during the late nineteenth century in the work of
British, German and Scandinavian archeologists, antiquarians and anthropologists. Another division of history
and prehistory can be made between those written events that can be precisely dated by use of a continuous
calendar dating from current and those that can't. The loss of continuity of calendar date most often occurs
when a civilization falls and the language and calendar fall into disuse. The current civilization therefore loses
the ability to precisely date events written through primary sources to events dated to current calendar dating.]

The occurrence of written materials (and so the beginning of local "historic times") varies generally to
cultures classified within either the late Bronze Age or within the Iron Age. Historians increasingly do not
restrict themselves to evidence from written records and are coming to rely more upon evidence from the
natural and social sciences, thereby blurring the distinction between the terms "history" and "prehistory". This
view has been articulated by advocates of deep history.

This article is concerned with human prehistory, or the time since behaviorally and anatomically modern
humans first appear until the beginning of recorded history. There are separate articles for the overall history
of the Earth and the history of life before humans.

Definition
By definition, there are no written records from human prehistory, so dating of prehistoric materials is crucial.
Clear techniques for dating were not well-developed until the 19th century.

The primary researchers into human prehistory are prehistoric archaeologists and physical anthropologists
who use excavation, geologic and geographic surveys, and other scientific analysis to reveal and interpret the
nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples. Human population geneticists and historical
linguists are also providing valuable insight for these questions. Cultural anthropologists help provide context
for societal interactions, by which objects of human origin pass among people, allowing an analysis of any
article that arises in a human prehistoric context. Therefore, data about prehistory is provided by a wide
variety of natural and social sciences, such as paleontology, biology, archaeology, palynology, geology,
archaeoastronomy, comparative linguistics, anthropology, molecular genetics and many others.

Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology but in the way it deals with the
activities of archaeological cultures rather than named nations or individuals. Restricted to material processes,
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remains and artifacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms
that prehistorians use, such as Neanderthal or Iron Age are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject
to debate.

The date marking the end of prehistory in a particular culture or region, that is, the date when relevant written
historical records become a useful academic resource, varies enormously from region to region. For example,
in Egypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BCE, whereas in New Guinea the end of
the prehistoric era is set much more recently, at around 1900 CE. In Europe the relatively well-documented
classical cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome had neighboring cultures, including the Celts, and to a
lesser extent the Etruscans, with little or no writing, and historians must decide how much weight to give to
the often highly prejudiced accounts of these "prehistoric" cultures in Greek and Roman literature.

Stone Age
Paleolithic

"Paleolithic" means "Old Stone Age," and begins with the first use of stone tools. The Paleolithic is the
earliest period of the Stone Age.

The early part of the Paleolithic is called the Lower Paleolithic, which predates Homo sapiens, beginning with
Homo habilis (and related species) and with the earliest stone tools, dated to around 2.5 million years ago.
Early Homo sapiens originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Paleolithic. Anatomic
changes indicating modern language capacity also arise during the Middle Paleolithic. The systematic burial
of the dead, the music, early art, and the use of increasingly sophisticated multi-part tools are highlights of the
Middle Paleolithic.

Throughout the Paleolithic, humans generally lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherer societies
tended to be very small and egalitarian, though hunter-gatherer societies with abundant resources or advanced
food-storage techniques sometimes developed sedentary lifestyles with complex social structures such as
chiefdoms, and social stratification. Long-distance contacts may have been established, as in the case of
Indigenous Australian "highways."

Mesolithic

The "Mesolithic," or "Middle Stone Age" (from the Greek "mesos," "middle," and "lithos," "stone") was the
period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone
Age.

The Mesolithic period began at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, some 10,000 BP, and ended with the
introduction of agriculture, the date of which varied by geographic region. In some areas, such as the Near
East, agriculture was already underway by the end of the Pleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short and
poorly defined. In areas with limited glacial impact, the term "Epipaleolithic" is sometimes preferred.

Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have a much more evident
Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies
from the marshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours
that are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. These conditions also
delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BCE (6,000 BP) in northern Europe.

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Remains from this period are few and far between, often limited to middens. In forested areas, the first signs
of deforestation have been found, although this would only begin in earnest during the Neolithic, when more
space was needed for agriculture.

The Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small composite flint tools microliths and microburins.
Fishing tackle, stone adzes and wooden objects, e.g. canoes and bows, have been found at some sites. These
technologies first occur in Africa, associated with the Azilian cultures, before spreading to Europe through the
Ibero-Maurusian culture of Northern Africa and the Kebaran culture of the Levant. Independent discovery is
not always ruled out.

Neolithic

"Neolithic" means "New Stone Age." This was a period of primitive technological and social development,
toward the end of the "Stone Age". The Neolithic period saw the development of early villages, agriculture,
animal domestication, tools and the onset of the earliest recorded incidents of warfare. The Neolithic term is
commonly used in the Old World, as its application to cultures in the Americas and Oceania that did not fully
develop metal-working technology raises problems.

Agriculture

Forest gardening, originating in prehistory, is thought to be the world's oldest known form of agriculture (or
agroecosystem). Vere Gordon Childe then describes an "Agricultural Revolution" occurring about the 10th
millennium BCE with the adoption of agriculture and domestication of plants and animals. The Sumerians
first began farming c. 9500 BCE. By 7000 BCE, agriculture had been developed in India and Peru separately;
by 6000 BCE, in Egypt; by 5000 BCE, in China. About 2700 BCE, agriculture had come to Mesoamerica.

Although attention has tended to concentrate on the Middle East's Fertile Crescent, archaeology in the
Americas, East Asia and Southeast Asia indicates that agricultural systems, using different crops and animals,
may in some cases have developed there nearly as early. The development of organized irrigation, and the use
of a specialized workforce, by the Sumerians, began about 5500 BCE. Stone was supplanted by bronze and
iron in implements of agriculture and warfare. Agricultural settlements had until then been almost completely
dependent on stone tools. In Eurasia, copper and bronze tools, decorations and weapons began to be
commonplace about 3000 BCE. After bronze, the Eastern Mediterranean region, Middle East and China saw
the introduction of iron tools and weapons.

The Americas developed metallurgy for decorative objects, but did not use metal extensively for utilitarian
purposes. No evidence of melting, smelting, or casting has been found in the prehistoric Americas. However,
little archaeological research has so far been done in Peru, and nearly all the khipus (recording devices, in the
form of knots, used by the Incas) were burned in the Spanish conquest of Peru. As late as 2004, entire cities
were still being unearthed.

The cradles of early civilizations were river valleys, such as the Euphrates and Tigris valleys in Mesopotamia,
the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus valley in the Indian subcontinent, and the Yangtze and Yellow River
valleys in China. Some nomadic peoples, such as the Indigenous Australians and the Bushmen of southern
Africa, did not practice agriculture until relatively recent times.

Agriculture made possible complex societies civilizations in many climates. States and markets emerged.
Technologies enhanced people's ability to harness nature and to develop transport and communication."The
city represented a new degree of human concentration, a new magnitude in settlement". Cities relied on
agricultural surplus. since the inhabitants of a city do not produce their own food...cities cannot support
themselves...thus exist only where agriculture is successful enough to produce agricultural surplus."

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Chalcolithic

In Old World archaeology, the "Chalcolithic", "Eneolithic" or "Copper Age" refers to a transitional period
where early copper metallurgy appeared alongside the widespread use of stone tools.

Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a time period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of
urban civilization.

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 smelting copper and tin
from naturally occurring outcroppings of ores, and then combining them to cast bronze. These naturally
occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the
fact that there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before 3000 BCE. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-
age system for prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world.

The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in
modern times by Christian Jrgensen Thomsen, for classifying and studying ancient societies. An ancient
civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, or by
trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there
were no tin bronzes in western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide,
the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, but in some parts of the world, the Copper Age
served as a transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Although the Iron Age generally followed the
Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic from outside the region, with the
exception of Sub-Saharan Africa where it was developed independently.

Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing. According to archaeological evidence,
cultures in Mesopotamia (cuneiform) and Egypt (hieroglyphs) developed the earliest viable writing systems.

The Bronze Age is the earliest period for which we have direct written accounts, since the invention of writing
coincides with its early beginnings.

History
The overall period is characterized by the full adoption of bronze in many regions, though the place and time
of the introduction and development of bronze technology was not universally synchronous. Man-made tin
bronze technology requires set production techniques. Tin must be mined (mainly as the tin ore cassiterite)
and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of
extensive use of metals and of developing trade networks (See Tin sources and trade in ancient times).

Iron Age
The Iron Age is the period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron.

The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of these
materials coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs
and artistic styles. The Iron Age as an archaeological term indicates the condition as to civilization and culture
of a people using iron as the material for their cutting tools and weapons. The Iron Age is the third principal

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period of the three-age system created by Christian Thomsen (17881865) for classifying ancient societies
and prehistoric stages of progress.

In historical archaeology, the ancient literature of the Iron Age includes the earliest texts preserved in
manuscript tradition. Sanskrit and Chinese literature flourished in the Iron Age. Other texts include the
Avestan Gathas, the Indian Vedas and the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible. The principal feature that
distinguishes the Iron Age from the preceding ages is the introduction of alphabetic characters, and the
consequent development of written language which enabled literature and historic record.

The beginning of the Iron Age in Europe and adjacent areas is characterized by certain forms of implements,
weapons, personal ornaments, and pottery, and also by systems of decorative design, which are altogether
different from those of the preceding age of bronze. Metalsmithing expanded from the primary form in the
Bronze Age, casting, to include forging. The system of decoration, which in the Bronze Age consisted chiefly
of a repetition of rectilinear patterns, gave way to a system of curvilinear and flowing designs. The term "Iron
Age" has low chronological value, because it did not begin simultaneously across the entire world. The dates
and context vary depending on the region, and the sequence of ages is not necessarily true for every part of the
earth's surface. There are areas, such as the islands of the South Pacific, the interior of Africa, and parts of
North and South America, where peoples have passed directly from the use of stone to the use of iron without
an intervening age of bronze.

Chronology
Around 3000 BC, iron was a scarce and precious metal in the Near East. The earliest known iron artifacts are
nine small beads, dated to 3200 BC, from burials in Gerzeh, northern Egypt, that were made from meteoric
iron, and shaped by careful hammering. Iron's qualities, in contrast to those of bronze, were not understood.
Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of iron objects was
fast and far-flung. In the history of ferrous metallurgy, iron smelting the extraction of usable metal from
oxidized iron ores is more difficult than tin and copper smelting. These other metals and their alloys can be
cold-worked, or melted in simple pottery kilns and cast in molds; but smelted iron requires hot-working and
can be melted only in specially designed furnaces. It is therefore not surprising that humans only mastered
iron smelting after several millennia of bronze metallurgy.

In 2005, metallurgical analysis by Hideo Akanuma of iron fragments found at Kaman-Kalehyk in 1994 and
dating to c. 1800 BC revealed that some of these fragments were in fact composed of carbon steel; these
currently form the world's earliest known evidence for steel manufacture.

Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production as taking place in Anatolia around 1200
BC, though some contemporary archaeological evidence points to earlier dates.

Lack of archaeological evidence of iron production made it seem unlikely that it had begun earlier elsewhere,
and the Iron Age was seen as a case of simple diffusion of a new and superior technology from an invention
point in the Near East to other regions. It is now known that meteoric iron, or iron-nickel alloy, was used by
various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its native metallic state,
required no smelting of ores. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects
(distinguishable from meteoric iron by the lack of nickel in the product) appeared in the Middle East,
Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

Pure iron is softer than bronze, and therefore produces tools which wear out faster. The advantage of using
iron over bronze lay in cheaper production and the wide availability of iron ore. The systematic production
and use of iron implements in Anatolia began around 2000 BC. Recent archaeological research in the Ganges
Valley, India showed early iron working by 1800 BC. However, this metal was expensive, perhaps because of
the complications of steel-making.
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Anthony Snodgrass suggests that a shortage of tin, as a part of the Bronze Age Collapse and trade disruptions
in the Mediterranean around 1300 BC, forced metalworkers to seek an alternative to bronze. As evidence,
many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time. More widespread use of iron led to
improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was
cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently.

Recent archaeological work has modified not only the above chronology, but also the causes of the transition
from bronze to iron. New dates from India suggest that iron was being worked there as early as 1800 BC, and
African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC, confounding the idea that there was a simple discovery
and diffusion model. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse
in the ancient Near East, in ancient India (with the post-Rigvedic Vedic civilization), ancient Iran, and ancient
Greece (with the Greek Dark Ages). In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in
Central Europe and the 6th century BC in Northern Europe. The Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two
subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I (12001000 BC) illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the
previous Late Bronze Age. There is no definitive cultural break between the 13th and 12th century BC
throughout the entire region, although certain new features in the hill country, Transjordan, and coastal region
may suggest the appearance of the Aramaean and Sea People groups. There is evidence, however, that shows
strong continuity with Bronze Age culture, although as one moves later into Iron I the culture begins to
diverge more significantly from that of the late 2nd millennium.

History
During the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were
produced with a carbon content between approximately 0.30% and 1.2% by weight. Alloys with less carbon
than this, such as wrought iron, cannot be heat treated to a significant degree and will consequently be of low
hardness, while a higher carbon content creates an extremely hard but brittle material that cannot be annealed,
tempered, or otherwise softened. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, but
stronger. However, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to
make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods. Many techniques have been used to
create steel; Mediterranean ones differ dramatically from African ones, for example. Sometimes the final
product is all steel, sometimes techniques like case hardening or forge welding were used to make cutting
edges stronger.

The concept of Stone Age

The terms "Stone Age", "Bronze Age", and "Iron Age" were never meant to suggest that advancement and
time periods in prehistory are only measured by the type of tool material, rather than, for example, social
organization, food sources exploited, adaptation to climate, adoption of agriculture, cooking, settlement and
religion. Like pottery, the typology of the stone tools combined with the relative sequence of the types in
various regions provide a chronological framework for the evolution of man and society. They serve as
diagnostics of date, rather than characterizing the people or the society.

Lithic analysis is a major and specialised form of archaeological investigation. It involves the measurement of
the stone tools to determine their typology, function and the technology involved. It includes scientific study
of the lithic reduction of the raw materials, examining how the artifacts were made. Much of this study takes
place in the laboratory in the presence of various specialists. In experimental archaeology, researchers attempt
to create replica tools, to understand how they were made. Flintknappers are craftsmen who use sharp tools to
reduce flintstone to flint tool.

In addition to lithic analysis, the field prehistorian utilizes a wide range of techniques derived from multiple
fields. The work of the archaeologist in determining the paleocontext and relative sequence of the layers is
supplemented by the efforts of the geologic specialist in identifying layers of rock over geologic time, of the
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paleontological specialist in identifying bones and animals, of the palynologist in discovering and identifying
plant species, of the physicist and chemist in laboratories determining dates by the carbon-14, potassium-
argon and other methods. Study of the Stone Age has never been mainly about stone tools and archaeology,
which are only one form of evidence. The chief focus has always been on the society and the physical people
who belonged to it.

Useful as it has been, the concept of the Stone Age has its limitations. The date range of this period is
ambiguous, disputed, and variable according to the region in question. While it is possible to speak of a
general 'stone age' period for the whole of humanity, some groups never developed metal-smelting
technology, so remained in a 'stone age' until they encountered technologically developed cultures. The term
was innovated to describe the archaeological cultures of Europe. It may not always be the best in relation to
regions such as some parts of the Indies and Oceania, where farmers or hunter-gatherers used stone for tools
until European colonisation began.

The archaeologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries CE, who adapted the three-age system to their
ideas, hoped to combine cultural anthropology and archaeology in such a way that a specific contemporaneous
tribe can be used to illustrate the way of life and beliefs of the people exercising a specific Stone-Age
technology. As a description of people living today, the term stone age is controversial. The Association of
Social Anthropologists discourages this use, asserting:

"To describe any living group as 'primitive' or 'Stone Age' inevitably implies that they are living
representatives of some earlier stage of human development that the majority of humankind has left behind.
For some, this could be a positive description, implying, for example, that such groups live in greater harmony
with nature .... For others, ... 'primitive' is a negative characterisation. For them, 'primitive' denotes irrational
use of resources and absence of the intellectual and moral standards of 'civilised' human societies.... From the
standpoint of anthropological knowledge, both these views are equally one-sided and simplistic."

Historical significance
The Stone Age is contemporaneous with the evolution of the genus Homo, the only exception possibly being
at the very beginning, when species prior to Homo may have manufactured tools. According to the age and
location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the
north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the other living Primates, the
genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest, where the primates evolved. The rift
served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and
through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia.

Starting from about 3 million years ago (mya) a single biome established itself from South Africa through the
rift, North Africa, and across Asia to modern China, which has been called "transcontinental 'savannahstan'"
recently.[2] Starting in the grasslands of the rift, Homo erectus, the predecessor of modern humans, found an
ecological niche as a tool-maker and developed a dependence on it, becoming a "tool equipped savanna
dweller."