Prehistory traditionally refers to the span of time before recorded history, ending with the

invention of writing systems.[1]Prehistory refers to the past in an area where no written

records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. Since the 20th century,
the study of prehistory is considered essential to implicit exclusion of certain preliterate
civilizations, such as those of Sub-Saharan Africa, pre-Columbian America, Australian
Aboriginals and New Zealand Mori.
Protohistory refers to the transition period between prehistory and history, after the advent
of literacy in a society but before the writings of the first historians. Protohistory may also
refer to the period during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but
other cultures have noted its existence in their own writings.
More complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing. Early examples are
the Jiahu symbols (ca. 6600 BCE),Vina signs (ca. 5300 BCE), early Indus script (ca. 3500
BCE) and Nsibidi script (ca. before 500 CE). There is disagreement concerning exactly
when prehistory becomes history, and when proto-writing became "true
writing"[2] However, invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the
beginning of the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic of the late 4th millennium BCE.
The Sumerian archaic cuneiform script and the Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally
considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate
symbol systems from 34003200 BCE with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BCE.

Historical accounts[edit]
Main article: Historiography The history of written history

Oracle bone of the Shang Dynasty, ancient China

The earliest chronologies date back to the two earliest civilizations: the
ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia and the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt[3] which
emerged independently of each other from roughly 3500 B.C. [4] Earliest recorded history,
which varies greatly in quality and reliability, deals with Pharaohs and their reigns, made
by ancient Egyptians.[5] Much of the earliest recorded history was re-discovered relatively
recently due to archaeological dig sites findings.[6] Since these initial accounts, a number
of different traditions have developed in different parts of the world in how to handle the
writing and production of historical accounts.

Asia[edit]
The groundwork for professional historiography in East Asia was established by the Han
Dynasty court historian known asSima Qian (14590 B.C.), author of the Shiji (Records of
the Grand Historian). For the quality of his written work, Sima Qian is posthumously known
as the Father of Chinese Historiography. Zuo Qiuming is traditionally identified as the
author of the historical text Zuo Zhuan.[7]

Europe[edit]
Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BCE ca.425 BCE)[8] has generally been acclaimed as the
"father of history" composing his The Histories written from 450s to the 420s BCE.
However, his contemporary Thucydides (ca. 460 BCE ca. 400 BCE) is credited with having
first approached history with a well-developed historical method in his work the History of
the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus, regarded history as being the
product of the choices and actions of human beings, and looked at cause and effect, rather
than as the result of divine intervention.[8]
Saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the
medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was often studied
through a sacred or religious perspective. Around 1800, German philosopher and
historian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel brought philosophyand a more secular approach in
historical study.[9]
According to John Tosh, "From the High Middle Ages (c.10001300) onwards, the written
word survives in greater abundance than any other source for Western
history."[10] Western historians developed methods comparable to modern historiographic
research in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in France and Germany, where they
began investigating these source materials to write histories of their past. Many of these
histories, had strong ideological and political ties to their historical narratives. In the 20th
century, academic historians began focusing less on epic nationalistic narratives, which
often tended to glorify the nation orgreat men, to more objective and complex analyses of
social and intellectual forces. A major trend of historical methodology in the 20th century
was a tendency to treat history more as a social science rather than as an art, which
traditionally had been the case. French historians associated with the Annales
School introduced quantitative history, using raw data to track the lives of typical
individuals, and were prominent in the establishment of cultural history.

Middle East[edit]
In the preface to his book, the Muqaddimah (1377), the Arab historian and early
sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, warned of seven mistakes that he thought that historians
regularly committed. In this criticism, he approached the past as strange and in need of
interpretation. Ibn Khaldun often criticized "idle superstition and uncritical acceptance of
historical data." As a result, he introduced a scientific method to the study of history, and
he often referred to it as his "new science".[11] His historical method also laid the
groundwork for the observation of the role
of state, communication, propaganda and systematic bias in history,[12] and he is thus
considered to be the "father of historiography"[13][14] or the "father of the philosophy of
history".[15]