The End of Prehistory: Toward the First Urban Civilizations

Prehistory is conventionally considered to end with the emergence of writing, a criterion that marks the beginning of History by making it possible to record testimony directly in written form. The earliest known writing systems arose in Mesopotamia, with cuneiform script developed by the Sumerians toward the end of the fourth millennium BCE, and in Egypt, with hieroglyphic writing, at roughly the same time.