Restricted to material remains rather than written records (and indeed only those remains that have survived), prehistory is anonymous.
The date marking the end of prehistory, that is the date when written historical records become a useful academic resource, varies from region to region.
Prehistory (Greek words ??? = before and ??????? = history) is the period before written history became available to assist our understanding of the past.
Archaeologists have augmented this record and provided more precise divisions during later, human, prehistory.
Until the arrival of humans, a geologic time scale defines periods in prehistory.
Prehistory thus ends when we are able to name individual actors in history, such as Snofru, founder of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, whose reign began circa 2620 B.C.E.
Human prehistory in the Old World (Europe, Asia) is often subdivided by the three-age system.
Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of chronology but in the way it deals with the activities of archaeological cultures rather than named nations or individuals.