Prehistoric Europe refers to prehistorical period of Europe. Prehistory can be said to date back to the beginning of the universe, although the term is most often used to describe the period when there was life on Earth. The term "Europe" is ill-defined as it refers to what is now a peninsula of the Eurasian super-continent. Its boundaries are thus somewhat variable, depending on the application. Because, by definition, there are no written records from prehistoric times, the information known about the period is determined by the various fields of the natural and social sciences.

From the Upper Paleolithic, in the period of ca. 1.8 million to 20,000 years ago, Europe was populated by Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. In the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic, from ca. 40,000 to 6,000 years ago, Europe had Homo sapiens hunter-gatherer populations. During the Last glacial maximum, much of Europe was depopulated and re-settled from about 15,000 years ago. The European Neolithic begins about 9,000 years ago in southeastern Europe, and reaches northern Europe by about 5,000 years ago. The European Bronze Age begins from about 4,800 years ago (2800 BC) with the Bell beaker culture. The European Iron Age begins from about 2,800 years ago (800 BC), spreading to northern Europe by 2,500 years ago (500 BC). During the Bronze Age, Europe gradually enters the historical period, with writing in Anatolia from about 4000 years ago. Literacy came to the Mediterranean world from as early as 2800 years ago (Classical Antiquity), while eastern and northeastern Europe remained in the prehistoric period until as late as the Late Middle Ages, some 600 years ago, with the Northern Crusades. Thus Europe was in a stage of Proto-history for a long period.