Difference Between History and Prehistory

Thekey differencebetween history and prehistory is thathistory has records of events whereas prehistory does not.

History can be explained as a record of the events that happened in the past. Prehistory does not record the happenings since there were no recording facilities available in the period implied by the word ‘prehistory’.

CONTENTS

1.Overview and Key Difference
2.What is Prehistory
3.What is History
4.Side by Side Comparison – History vs Prehistory in Tabular Form
5.Summary

What is Prehistory

The word prehistory gave rise to words such as prehistoric man and prehistoric period. Hence, it can be said that prehistory is the term that is used to denote the time period before recorded history. Historians and geologists use the word ‘prehistory’ to denote the period of time since the beginning of the universe and since life began on the planet Earth. It is also used to denote the time since human existence began.

It is important to note thatprehistory is characterized by the three-age system. The three ages by which prehistory is divided are called theStone Age,theBronze Ageand theIron Age. These three ages are characterized by the types of tools used and the materials that were used in the making of these tools. Written records do not exist in the case of prehistory. However, we can learn various types of information about prehistory fromfossils, artefacts,ancient carvings, etc.

What is History?

History, on the contrary, is served well by written records. There exist written records of some of the greatest empires in world history. These great empires include the Mughal empire in India, the Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire and several other empires all over the world. Most of these empires have come to be known to posterity thanks to the recorded historical texts written during those periods.

Hence, it is true that history depends on a written source. It is a recorded set of events that might have happened during a particular period of time. History in short can be called the study of the human past. History heavily relies on writing and hence you can say that history could mean that time period after writing was invented.

What is the Difference Between History and Prehistory?

As explained in the above sections, the key difference between history and prehistory is the presence of written records. Therefore, we can describe prehistory as the period before writing was introduced and history as the period of recorded events. Moreover, prehistory is the time period that preceded history. Although prehistory does not have written records, we can some information about prehistory from fossils, artefacts, ancient carvings, etc.

Summary – History vs Prehistory

The key difference between history and prehistory is the presence of written records. Therefore, we can describe prehistory as the period before writing was introduced and history as the period of recorded events.

1. “Stone-age-painting” By Gugatchitchinadze – Own work(CC BY-SA 4.0)viaCommons Wikimedia
2. “63004” (CC0) viaPixabay