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Prehistory (Latin, præ = before Greek, ?st???a = history) is a term often used to describe the period before written history. Paul Tournal originally coined the term Pré-historique in describing the finds he had made in the caves of southern France. It came into use in French in the 1830s to describe the time before writing, and was introduced into English by Daniel Wilson in 1851. Prehistory can be said to date back to the beginning of the universe itself, although the term is most often used to describe periods when there was life on Earth; dinosaurs can be described as prehistoric animals and cavemen are described as prehistoric people. Furthermore, the word prehistory can be said to have special relevance to the study of the human past, as opposed to, for example, that of other animals or the earth itself, and this nuance can be seen from its usage. In any case, usually the context implies what geologic or prehistoric time period is discussed, f.e. "prehistoric miocene apes", about 23 - 5.5 Million years ago, or "Middle Palaeolithic Homo sapiens", 200,000 - 30,000 years ago. Because, by definition, there are no known written records from prehistoric times, the information we know about the time period is informed by the various fields of the natural and social sciences, such as paleontology, biology, palynology, geology, archaeoastronomy, anthropology, archaeology, and many more. In societies where the introduction of writing is relatively recent, oral histories, knowledge of the past handed down from generation to generation, contain records of "prehistoric" times. The term became less strictly defined in the 20th century as the boundary between history (interpretation of written and oral records) and other disciplines became less rigid. Indeed today most historians rely on evidence from many areas and do not necessarily restrict themselves to the historical period and written, oral or other symbolically encoded sources of communication; in addition, the term "history" is increasingly used in place of "prehistory" (e.g. History of Earth, history of the universe). Nevertheless, the distinction remains important to many scholars, particularly in the social sciences. The primary researchers into Human prehistory are prehistoric archaeologists and physical anthropologists who use excavation, geographic survey, and scientific analysis to reveal and interpret the nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples. Human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight for these questions.
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