protohistory

Protohistory is a scholarly term used to describe the transitional interval between prehistory and history in which a society is encountered in written sources but those sources are incomplete, undeciphered, or not yet coherent as a full historical narrative. The concept highlights that, in some regions and periods, writing exists but cannot yet be read, or external accounts provide only a fragmentary or sporadic view of a culture. Protohistorical contexts thus rely on a combination of archaeological evidence and limited textual material to bridge the gap to fully documented history.

In practice, protohistory covers times and places where inscriptions or documents are present but yield only partial information, or where the indigenous writing is not yet understood and external writers provide glimpses of the past. This often includes regions with undeciphered scripts (for example, certain phases of the Indus Valley or Minoan writing) and periods in which historical knowledge depends heavily on material culture, material archaeology, and later sources for interpretation. The protohistoric label is regional and time-specific, reflecting where the transition from prehistoric methods of record-keeping to historically oriented narratives is incomplete.

Scholars use protohistory to discuss how the emergence of writing alters the construction of history, the way societies are remembered, and how sources are interpreted. The term is not uniformly defined and is sometimes replaced by phrases such as early history, transitional period, or preliterate historicity, depending on regional conventions and scholarly preferences. Research in protohistory integrates archaeology, epigraphy, linguistics, and comparative history to synthesize limited sources into a broader historical understanding.