Pre-History

What did the earth look like four million years ago? Who lived here? What did they look like? Find out here.

Prehistoric time line, geologic time scale, photos, facts, maps, and more from National Geographic.

Prehistory is the period before written history became available to assist our understanding of the past. The term was introduced into English by Daniel Wilson (1816-1892), President of Toronto University College, in 1851. The term Pre-historique had been used in French since the 1830s to describe the time before writing. Paul Tournal originally coined the term in describing the finds he had made in the caves of southern France.

The ability to forge iron changes daily life and warfare.

From the dawn of our species to the present day, stone-made artefacts are the dominant form of material remains that have survived to today concerning human technology.

Why humans left their African homeland 80,000 years ago to colonize the world.

The earliest stone toolmaking developed by at least 2.6 million years ago. The Early Stone Age includes the most basic stone toolkits made by early humans. The Early Stone Age in Africa is equivalent to what is called the Lower Paleolithic in Europe and Asia.

Find out more about the history of Ice Age, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on History.

The Paleolithic Age, also known as the Stone Age, encompasses the first widespread use of technology - as humans progressed from simpler to more complex developmental stages - and the spread of humanity from the savannas of East Africa to the rest of the world.

The Old Stone Age (Paleolithic Era) -from the beginning of human existence until around 12,000 years ago. Why do we call this time in history the Stone Age?

Human prehistory is the period from the time that behaviorally and anatomically modern humans first appear until the appearance of recorded history following the invention of writing systems. Since both the time of settlement of modern humans, and the evolution of human civilizations, differ from region to region, prehistory starts and ends at different moments in time, depending on the region concerned.

Spectacular dinosaur finds represent just a fraction of what the fossil record has to tell us.

People came to the New World thousands of years earlier and by different means of locomotion than expected, says the Sherlock Holmes of old bones.