Now I know what you're thinking: You mean, the history books are wrong? Well, not exactly, per se, but they also aren't always correct. Things happen: they have causes, outcomes, and consequences. But human beings like to remember things as they want to remember them--and so it is with history. History is whatever we, as humans, collectively decide that it is that has happened to us during the course of our existence on the planet Earth. Ever heard that saying "History is written by the winners"? Well, it's pretty darn true. Half of history is fact; the other half is the explanation of those facts--and therein lies the problem. You get the idea.
HISTORY, however, is an entirely different matter. Most historians would agree that the beginning of human history coincides with the acquisition of not only language, but also of writing; this definition seems rather narrow, however, in light of oral tradition. In any case, human history starts when people started keeping a record of being people. This includes not only significant events in world history, but also government, economic, socio-political, natural, and religious records. Herein lies that problem of which I spoke earlier--the whole of human history is fraught with bias, prejudice, erroneous logic, and a multitude of other problems which arise primarily out of the fact that humans tend to remember happenings as they wish them to be remembered.
For a nice understanding of PRE-HISTORY, visit Wikipedia, or your local Library. Look up the Anthropology section :)
Because, by definition, there are no written records from human prehistory, dating of prehistoric materials is particularly crucial to the enterprise. Clear techniques for dating were not well-developed until the 19th century.[7] The primary researchers into Human prehistory are prehistoric archaeologists and physical anthropologists who use excavation, geologic and geographic surveys, and other scientific analysis to reveal and interpret the nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples.[5] Human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight for these questions.[6] Cultural anthropologists help to provide context of marriage and trade, by which objects of human origin are passed among people, thereby allowing for a rich analysis of any article that arises in a human prehistoric context.[6] Therefore, data about prehistory is provided by a wide variety of natural and social sciences, such as
paleontology, biology, archaeology, palynology, geology, archaeoastronomy,comparative linguistics, anthropology, molecular genetics and many others.
Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology but in the way it deals with the activities of archaeological cultures rather than named nations or individuals. Restricted to material processes, remains and artifacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, the reference terms used by prehistorians such as Neanderthal or Iron Age are modern labels, the precise definition of which is often subject to discussion and argument.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. For example, in Egypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BC, whereas in New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, at around 1900 AD. Wikipedia, excerpt from Prehistory.
Thus, as you will soon discover (if you haven't already), "history" only begins around 6000 years ago. This also happens to coincide with the projected inception of the Bible. However, we people have certainly been around for much longer than 6000 years (try closer to 200,000). History, too, is also culturally bounded and dependent. Thus, the notion of a unified "history" is, for obvious reasons, rather problematic. So try not to dwell on it, if you can help it.
Rather, we of the anthropological variety are primarily concerned with CHRONOLOGY. Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline. It may also refer to "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events". Chronology is part of periodization. It is also part of the discipline of history, including earth history, the earth sciences, and study of the geologic time scale.
Speaking of, if you're going to be coming around here very often, this geologic time scale is something you're going to have to have at least a basic understanding of. Let's examine it, shall we?
GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
As you can see, this chronology is rather vast. About 4.6 billion years in the making, actually. And in comparison, anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) play a rather small role in the grand scheme of things. We make our debut somewhere in the Pleistocene, and thenceforth we have the Quarternary Period of the Cenozoic Era. However, that is the exactly chunk of time anthropologists are most primarily concerned with. This is the true span of human history; unfortunately, this is probably not what you were being taught in fifth-grade history class.
Thus, with this new interpretation of the ideas of time and history in mind, feel free to proceed into a delightful new world of understanding the past, present, and future of humanity (and oh so much more!).
For an excellent, in-depth, and--most importantly of all--scientific description of the Geologic Time Scale, visit the USGS page on The Numeric Time Scale.
