Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c4.s19: Archaeology

c4.s19.1

Archaeology means study of antiquities. These antiquities may belong to a historical period and thus fall into the sphere of historical archaeology. Others to a period beyond that. This earlier-than-history period is generally called pre-history and it suits well such countries as Africa, Australia and even England, France and Germany, for example, where except for some legends and traditions there was no systematic body of oral tradition or literature. India forms a major exception to this general notion. Here, though no regular, written accounts are available until the middle of the third century B.C., still it has a well developed literature—the Vedic and Sutra—the earliest of which easily goes back to 1,500 B.C. This literature can and has been a source of Indian history. But since it is (was) not written down, it is called here Proto-history.