Primary for Prehistory

History needs to be combined with prehistory. Prehistory is the term used for the time in any area before written records came into use there. The date for the end of prehistory varies hugely – it is before 3000 BC in the Near East; AD 43 in Britain, with the coming of the Romans; the sixteenth century AD for the New World with the Conquistadores; and the nineteenth century AD for parts of Africa outside Egypt. Archaeology can usefully supplement the written record; evidence from the ground may include the remains of buildings, personal possessions that reveal technological skills, and the bones of humans and animals that yield information about changing size, health and other aspects. Before the time of written records, archaeology is the only source of information. It may use different means to recreate the past, but it is simply carrying the study of history backwards. There is no gulf between history and archaeology. Increasingly children of migrant workers in many lands are making schools multiracial. While children must learn the history of the land of their adoption if not of their birth, if they are to take an informed interest in its politics as adults, all children should have an appreciation of their own country's part in a wider world context. There is the need to appreciate that all races belong to the same human species, Homo sapiens sapiens, that appeared about 30,000 years ago.