**Summary of Prehistoric Europe (≤200 words)**
* **Definition & Written Records**
Prehistoric Europe ends where written records begin; earliest texts emerge from
classical Middle Eastern–influenced eastern Mediterranean societies. The *Histories
of Herodotus* (c. 440 BC) is Europe’s oldest systematic text.
* **Lower Paleolithic (3 M – 300 k years ago)**
Scattered finds (e.g., Atapuerca site in Spain; Mauer mandible in Germany) show
rare, isolated human presence.
* **Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis; 600 k – 350 k years ago)**
Left rich fossil records and Mousterian stone-tool assemblages across Eurasia.
* **Upper Paleolithic Arrival of Homo sapiens (45 k – 43 k years ago)**
Co‐existed with Neanderthals for millennia; Neanderthal extinction dated 40 k –
28 k years ago (cause still debated).
* **Mesolithic & Ice‐Age Retreat**
Post–last glacial maximum (26.5 k – 19 k years ago) hunter-gatherers spread
northward.
* **Neolithic Farmer Migration (c. 8 k years ago)**
Ancient DNA shows indigenous foragers assimilated Near Eastern “farmers.”
* **First Sedentary Communities**
Lepenski Vir (Serbia) – earliest year-round settlement with monumental art;
nearby Starčevo shows early farming traits.
* **Copper Age (c. 7 k years ago)**
Oldest smelting at Belovode & Pločnik (Vinča culture).
* **Bronze Age (from c. 3200 BC)**
Bronze smelting imported via the Aegean; Cyprus was major copper source.
Metallurgy spurred social stratification.
* **Iron Age (from c. 1200 BC)**
Iron‐smelting technology spread from Hittites to Northern Europe by 500 BC.
* **Dawn of History**
Greek maritime colonies and Roman conquests diffused literacy; Christian texts
later extended it to Greenland and the Eastern Balts (13th c.). Latin and Ancient
Greek remained Europe’s scholarly languages until the early modern era.
