Prehistoric History sounds like an oxymoron, but there is much to learn from the traces left behind which did not involve writing - the definition of History. In very recent days we have found the first authentic evidence that King David of the Israelites actually existed - his name was inscribed as part of a text. The same goes for Arthur of Britain. It is much like a cat chasing its tail...the more we learn, the more we know. The more we know, the more we realize what we don't yet know so we have to learn some more...and so it goes.

Marcia, do you mean contemporary texts?

Yes, contemporary with David's lifetime...It is in Biblical Archaeology Review Jan/Feb 1999 Vol 25 No 1 issue Pages 34-35. It was a text found in Egypt. Two other have also been found (note footnotes)...open to discussion, however. Stay tuned for further developments. Prior to these 3 possible mention of David by name, he was unknown outside of The Bible!

..and if not exactly contemporaneous with David's lifetime, they are nonetheless ancient texts.

Very interesting!

Well, by Pre-Historic History, I meant something relating to humanity that's way before the records, like Lucy and other early primates, or the glacier-man they found in the Alpes, or other stuff that happened before there were folks about to write it down. But now, all these college-kids prowl the globe, and find all this thrilling factoids! Turning all those eon-old things into history now - like the info that Neanderthals have been cannibals. It's been proven now. Devolution right from the start! (Marcia - happy you got that pun. History needs some humour.)

The more things found and explained (as best we can from this remote date), the more interesting history becomes...and the more the past comes alive. The more alive it becomes the (and the more humor and real personality evidenced) the more it will be read and remembered. History has languished as a "I HAD to take that course" field of study for far too long. I always thought the Neanderthals got a bum rap for being brutish, They discovered a burial in Wales long ago in which red ochre was rubbed on the body and flowers had been interred with the individual. I think that is lovely, when everyone else was implying they abandoned the dead like cows do or horses or sheep...unnoticed! BTW, Cannibalism has an ancient and worthy history in Meso-America. It just might be what killed off the ruling class (priestly class, also)

Through enkephalitis, you mean? I don't remember the name, but it's something like Mad Cow Disease that cannibals suffer from.

Yes...through brain-inhabiting viruses. I cannot remember the name, either, but it will come to me, perhaps. Interesting quote I found in Archaeology Odyssey concerning the rock-cut structures in Cappadocia. One reader wanted to know where all the rubble from cutting the chambers into the rock went whereas the caves seemed to be intact. The author explained "cut stone can be carried away and reused as settlement patterns change, while caves tend to stay in one place."