The correct answer is 3) the time prior to the use of written records.
Prehistory can be described a the time prior to the use of written records.
Early humans were already on Earth but they did not know how to write so they did not leave any kind of records to be studied or interpreted. Early humans used primitive figures drawn on rocks in the caves, where they depicted animals or strange beings that have different interpretations by archeologists and historians. These pictograms and tools, weapons or ceramic found in archeological sites, help archeologists and historians to understand what could have happened in those legendary times.
<u><em>3. The time prior to the use of written records</em></u>
<u>Explanation:</u>
Prehistory is the period in which the first human beings appeared, six thousand years before writing was invented; thus, no existing written records of human civilization and events are preserved from this time.
Fossils, cave paintings or devices and tools are the only elements that offer a glimpse to life in prehistoric times.
