Prehistoric Age and Historical Age, Here's The Difference

INDEPHEDIA.com - In human life on this earth it is known that there were two eras passed, namely prehistoric times and historical times.

In both eras, humans experienced a period of transition from being very primitive (ancient) to modern.

The following is what prehistoric times and historical times are and the differences between these two eras.

Prehistoric Age

The term prehistory can mean a long period of time that begins with the events of the universe or the creation of Planet Earth.

In addition, prehistory is more often interpreted as the period of time that began with the appearance of living things on planet Earth.

In fact, more specifically, prehistory is defined as the period of time that began with the appearance of mankind.

The prehistoric era was the era when humans on this earth began to use stone tools and were not familiar with writing.

Because they were not familiar with writing, the prehistoric era was also called the Praaksara Age or the Nirleka Age.

The Age of Praaksara, namely the era before there were scripts and the Age of Nirleka, namely the era of the absence of writing (nir means nothing, leka means writing).

These two titles are actually the same, namely the era when humans at that time did not know writing or script.

Even though they did not know writing/script, prehistoric humans were already good at making symbols, signs and pictures.

This is evidenced by the existing findings regarding the existence of humans in these prehistoric times.

Because the prehistoric or non-literate era was marked by the absence of writing, so the important events that had occurred at that time were not immortalized in writing.

The absence of written evidence makes the next generation unable to know previous events or events.

The end of prehistoric times for each nation was different, depending on when the nation knew writing.

Evidence of prehistoric times can only be known through objects, symbols, signs, pictures and bones.

Information from prehistoric times can be obtained through fields of science, such as archeology, paleontology, biology, geology, anthropology and astronomy.

Age of History

The historical era was the era in which humans were familiar with writing. The beginning of the historical era in various regions of the world did not take place simultaneously.

History records that writing in the world was first used by the Sumerians around 3000 BC.

As a nation that pioneered Mesopotamian civilization, the Sumerians at that time communicated using clay tablets.

The clay tablets are inscribed with carved images that represent words or are called pictograph symbols.

Sumerian writing did not use the alphabet as it is today, but Cuneiform or cuneiform writing, which consisted of 350 pictorial signs.

The Paku letter from the Sumerians was later developed by the Romans into Latin letters.

After that, the Ancient Egyptians used a script known as hieroglyphics which consisted of a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements.

These characters consist of images in the form of humans, animals or objects, and writing symbols (resembling pictures of nails) which are secretive or difficult to understand.

Over the centuries that followed, rewriting evolved into the written language of the cultures of individual regions in different parts of the world.

From the differences above, it can be concluded that what distinguishes between prehistoric times and historical times is from the aspect of writing.

The prehistoric era was characterized by humans in that era not knowing writing, while the historical era had the characteristic of knowing writing. (SJ. IND)