Pre-History, Proto-History and Historical Age

This article deals with ‘Pre-History, Proto-History and Historical Age’ . This is part of our series on ‘Ancient History’ which is important pillar of GS-1 syllabus . For more articles , you can click here.


First, we will look into the meaning of Pre-History, Proto-History and Historical age to clarify these words.


  • Pre-History deals with the pre-historic cultures, which are identified as illiterate cultures of the past without the development of the art of writing. For this reason, we don’t find written records or literary resources for their historical reconstruction, which is solely based on archaeological resources like tools, pottery, cave paintings, bones, and other material remains.
Pre-History, Proto-History and Historical Age

Pre-Historic Cultures of India

In the Indian subcontinent, all Stone Age cultures, such as 

  1. Palaeolithic (like Bhimbetka (MP), Hunsgi (Karnataka) etc.)
  2. Mesolithic (like Bagor (Rajasthan))
  3. Neolithic (like Burzahom (Kashmir) and Mehrgarh (Baluchistan))
  4. Some metal age cultures, such as Chalcolithic (Jorwe (Maharashtra)) and Megalithic (Brahmagiri (Karnataka) and Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu))

are considered as Pre-Historic cultures.


  • Proto-History deals with proto-historic cultures or proto-historic times. 
  • Proto-historic cultures are supposed to be literate, but their scripts remain undeciphered. In the absence of the decipherment of the script, the reconstruction of the protohistoric cultures is based on archaeological resources. 
  • At times, even some illiterate cultures are considered proto-historic, provided that they are mentioned in the literary sources of some contemporary literate societies.
Proto-History
  • Indus Valley Civilization or Harappan Civilization mainly represents the Proto-Historic Age in the Indian subcontinent. 

  • The historical phase starts when we find both literary and archaeological resources for the historical reconstruction.
  • In north India, it began with the Vedic literature or Vedic civilization, whereas, in South India, it started with the Sangam literature. 
Historical Age

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