Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c4.s28.3

c4.s28.3

Later discoveries in this century are proving the truth of various Biblical accounts²⁵ and even those of the mythical kings and dynasties mentioned in the king-lists of Mesopotamia. Judged by the test of the existence of writing, the history of countries like Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Greece and Crete, is stretched much farther back. What was once believed to be prehistory has now come into the range of history. Thus both in Egypt and Mesopotamia history commences around 3,000 B.C. So will it be in India (or Sind and the Panjab and Saurashtra and Rajasthan) when the Indus script is deciphered. Hence the period prior to 3,000 B.C. and upto about 5,000 B.C. may be called Protohistory. For during this interval of 2,000 years or so (it indeed varies from region to region or country to country) many of the essentials of the historical period were being formulated or taking shape. Towns or villages, agriculture, metallurgy (though often rudimentary), monumental architecture, pottery and other crafts were all there—only the knowledge of writing²⁶ (literacy in the modern sense!) was absent.