prehistory
n. uncountablen. the time in the past before people started writing things down. We know about this time mostly from things they left behind, like tools and bones.
n. the period of human history before the invention of writing systems. It is studied through archaeological evidence rather than written records.
Archaeologists study prehistory to learn about early humans.
The discovery of cave paintings suggests that prehistory was much more complex than we previously thought.
While written records provide a linear narrative of history, prehistory offers a fragmented but vital glimpse into the cognitive and social evolution of our earliest ancestors.
From pre- (“before”) + history, first attested in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836, after the model of prehistoric, from French préhistorique.