Historical terms classification to chronicle times: prehistoric,ancient, medieval, modern, etc I know some words for describing times in history in English, but don't know to clearly make a distinction of them. I classify them as the following in the order of time sequence: the historical term after 'prehistoric times' is 'ancient times' that includes the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age in sequence, and the next is 'medieval times(=middle ages)', and the last is 'modern times' I think there should be another term between medieval times and modern times because there's a term for indicating the times in my language, but don't know the exact term. Do you say the period of transition to medieval times(=middle ages) to modern times as a way of indicating times between 'medieval times' and 'modern times'? If not, which term do you use? And I'm not sure whether or not 'ancient times' follows 'prehistoric times'. Is this classification correct?