How Long Ago Was Ancient?

**ohiopiper** · 14th May 11, 04:35 AM

There is no "real" answer. Historians generally consider the fall of the Roman empire to be the dividing line between ancient and modern, but even that is not a hard line, but a rule of thumb. Prehistoric is considered to be before the advent of written history (originally first hand acounts) so you'd have to go back about 7,000 years or so.

Remembering that there are no hard and fast rules:
more than 5,000 B.C. is prehistoric
5,000 B.C. to 410 (or thereabouts) A.D. is ancient
410 A.D. to the present is modern

**Woodsheal** · 14th May 11, 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by ohiopiper

There is no "real" answer. Historians generally consider the fall of the Roman empire to be the dividing line between ancient and modern, but even that is not a hard line, but a rule of thumb. Prehistoric is considered to be before the advent of written history (originally first hand acounts) so you'd have to go back about 7,000 years or so.

Remembering that there are no hard and fast rules:
more than 5,000 B.C. is prehistoric
5,000 B.C. to 410 (or thereabouts) A.D. is ancient
410 A.D. to the present is modern

Slight correction: Middle Age history is between the Ancient and Modern periods. The Modern era is considered to have begun roughly 1500 AD....

**ohiopiper** · 14th May 11, 06:11 AM

See what I mean about no hard and fast rules? Some historians regard the period from the fall of Rome to the rennaisance to be "middle ages", some lump it all in together.

Personally, I think the Middle Ages era is deserving of a seperate division because so much happened during the rennaisance to progress from the state of civilization found prior to it.