On the methodology of palaeohistorical reconstructions

Investigations into the pre-written history embracing more than 95% of the history of mankind (prehistory / palaeohistory) differs in terms of its sources and methods from the history taken in its narrow meaning, relying principally on the written documents. Prehistory cannot be reduced to archaeology or comparative linguistics, nor to a mechanical combination of these and other related disciplines, it has its own methodology and source base relying on a complex interdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge. The article is devoted to substantiation of this statement and considers some methodological aspects of palaeohistorical research concerning the problems of proto-linguistic communities, approaches to localization of ancestral homeland and reconstruction of proto-culture and history of the bearers of protolanguages of big linguistic families, case-studying the Uralic family.