The Human Past Before Writing
The species *Homo sapiens* has existed for roughly 300,000 years. The earliest known writing systems appeared only about 5,000–5,500 years ago, including proto-cuneiform in southern Mesopotamia. Nearly all of our species’ history therefore predates written records.
Researchers study this long period through human and animal fossils, stone tools, traces of hearths and settlements, sediment layers, pollen, plant remains, and ancient DNA when it survives. Each type of evidence reveals only part of the picture, and preservation is uneven: materials decay, sites remain undiscovered, or finds cannot be interpreted with confidence. Our reconstruction of the human past is consequently incomplete and changes with new discoveries.