Prehistory Idea

Prehistory Idea The concept of a span of human existence before recorded history may seem intuitively obvious to the readers, but such was not always the case.

What the eminent British historian of archeology Glyn Daniel (1914-86) called “the idea of prehistory” crystallized only in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Between 1820 and 1860, the study of the past moved from an antiquarian interest in old curiosities to a scholarly discipline which recognized that there was a considerable amount of human experience before historical records and which attempted to understand and explain this period in precise and rational terms.

In its European roots the study of human prehistory evolved along two major line.

The first generally be called “antiquarian,” and it involved the exploration of sites and the connoisseurship of artifacts, usually those of later prehistory.

Beginning in the late Renaissance, antiquarianism developed through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, until came of age on the nineteenth century Romantic era.

The Past lent itself readily to the statement of this period and the collection and curation of artifacts came to be systematic. Museum and eventually university departments were organized and archeology took its place alongside other “human sciences” as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry.
Prehistory Idea