Writing.Com General Discussion

Prehistory isn't slippery, it's very definitive. It is a time before written records began. Similarly, the Dark Ages were a period after the Roman withdrawal from all areas outside the Italian peninsula and the immediate region around Constantinople. They were called the Dark Ages because there are limited written records from that period, and most that do exist are 'after-the-fact' recollections and histories (such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles). It was also a period when literacy was in decline. They were 'dark' because there was very little to shine a light on them.

As for prehistory novels, go for it, whether they are within the common history or an alternative doesn't matter. What does matter is that the characters live in a world which is consistent with the world as we understand it to have been at that time, otherwise it is fantasy.