<Li> Iron Age--is not part of prehistory for all civilizations who had introduced written records during the Bronze Age . </Li> <Li> Protohistory--Period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings; the absolute time scale of "protohistory" varies widely depending on the region, from the late 4th millennium BCE in the Ancient Near East to the present in the case of uncontacted peoples . </Li> <Li> Ancient history--Aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era . The span of recorded history is roughly less than five thousand years, beginning with the earliest linguistic records in the third millennium BC in Mesopotamia and Egypt . <Ul> <Li> Classical antiquity--Broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco - Roman world . It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Ul> <Li> Classical antiquity--Broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco - Roman world . It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East . </Li> </Ul>

What is the time period before the middle ages