When Did History Begin

[corythesuit]

As a beginning historian I'm curious where people agree "history" actually began. Do we operate around written history or do we take into account the hearsay of the past?

 

[Gjallarhorn]

Most written history is still hearsay.

 

[Willamena]

I hearsay there was a past before written records.

 

[ChristineES]

I suppose history starts when they decided to write it down instead of just telling stories and hearsay. All we have from prehistory is some art, caverns, artifacts, tools, etc.

 

[earlwooters]

History begins when your born, continues during your life, and ends when you die. It is relevant only to the living.

 

[Sunstone]

History reveals human nature. The dismal thing about history is people are making the same mistakes today they made 3000 years ago. Technology and science change, human institutions change to a lesser extent, but human nature changes least of all.

 

[kai]

fables ,legends , art, the written word, buildings, are all history of the human race .

 

[angellous_evangellous]

History began with the first writing. Everything before that is pre-history.

example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-historic

The occurrence of written materials (and so the beginning of local "historic times") varies generally to cultures classified within either the late Bronze Age or within the Iron Age.

 

[kai]

what about the Inca it did not have what most of the rest of the world would recognize as a writing system. No carved stone, no papyrus, no wedges pressed into clay, no lines painted on potsherds. but we can determine a certain amout of the "history" of the Inca with archeaology.would we discount Quechua legends and folklore in any serious investigation of Inca civilisation . of course theres Spanish written history.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

what about the Inca it did not have what most of the rest of the world would recognize as a writing system. No carved stone, no papyrus, no wedges pressed into clay, no lines painted on potsherds. but we can determine a certain amout of the "history" of the Inca with archeaology.would we discount Quechua legends and folklore in any serious investigation of Inca civilisation . of course theres Spanish written history.

In that case, we are writing the history.

It's just a line in the sand that doesn't mean much.

 

[kai]

In that case, we are writing the history.

It's just a line in the sand that doesn't mean much.

Yeah i got you

 

[Archer]

As a beginning historian I'm curious where people agree "history" actually began. Do we operate around written history or do we take into account the hearsay of the past?

Where prehistoric ended