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Protohistory

{{Short description|Period between prehistory and written history}}

{{Human history and prehistory}}

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The term can also refer to a period in which fragmentary or external historical documents, not necessarily including a developed writing system, have been found.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,Bahn, Paul (ed.) The Penguin Archaeology Guide Penguin Books Ltd (29 Nov 2001) {{ISBN|978-0-14-029308-1}} p. 368 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,{{cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-285441-4 }} an article{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Timothy|title=The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198143857|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198143857/page/373 373–410]|isbn=978-0-19-814385-7 |author-link=Timothy Taylor (archaeologist)|editor=Cunliffe, Barry|contribution=Thracians, Scythians and Dacians}} by Timothy Taylor stated:

{{quote|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. | Timothy Taylor | The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe}}

In the abstract of a later paper on "slavery in the first millennium Aegean, Carpatho-Balkan and Pontic regions",{{Cite journal |author=Timothy Taylor |title=Believing the Ancients: Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Later Prehistoric Eurasia |journal=World Archaeology |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=27–43 |publisher=World Archaeology, Vol. 33, No. 1, The Archaeology of Slavery (Jun., 2001), pp. 27–43 |date=2001 |jstor=827887 |doi=10.1080/00438240120047618 |s2cid=162250553 }} Taylor, primarily an archaeologist, stated,

{{quote|I have taken the rather unusual step of trusting what the classical authors tell us they knew. | Timothy Taylor | The Archaeology of Slavery}}

For other examples, see also the writings of Brian M. Fagan on the protohistory of North America{{cite book |last=Fagan |first=Brian |title=Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent |year=2005 |edition=4th |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |isbn=978-0-500-28532-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientnorthamer0004faga }} and the work of Muhammed Abdul Nayeem on that of the Arabian Peninsula.{{cite book |editor-last=Nayeem |editor-first=Muhammed Abdul |title=Prehistory and Protohistory of the Arabian Peninsula (5 volumes) |year=1990 |publisher=Hyderabad Pub. |location=Hyderabad}}

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:

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:

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  • Alans{{cite web|title=Alani|url=http://global.britannica.com/topic/Alani|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=March 12, 2016}}
  • Balts
  • Bulgars
  • Celts
  • Dacians{{cite web|author=Herodotus|title=The Histories|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/ |website= Sacred Texts}}
  • Erie{{cite web|last1= Sultzman|first1= Lee|title= Erie|url= http://www.dickshovel.com/erie.html |website=Dick Shovel}}
  • Gauls{{cite web|title= Gaul - World History Encyclopedia|url= https://www.worldhistory.org/gaul/|website= World History Encyclopedia}}
  • Germanic peoples{{Cite AmCyc |wstitle= Germanic Races and Languages |volume= VII |last= Van Rhyn |first= G. A. F. |short=1 }}
  • Huns{{Cite book |last=Maenchen-Helfen |first=Otto J. |author-link=Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen |year=1973 |title= The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture |url= https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_CrUdgzSICxcC |editor= Max Knight |publisher=University of California Press |isbn= 0-520-01596-7 }}
  • Kofun{{cite book

| last = Kōzō

| first = Yamamura

|author2=John Whitney Hall

| title = The Cambridge history of Japan

| publisher = Cambridge University Press

| year = 1997

}}

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See also

References

{{Archaeology}}

Category:Historical eras