The 'proto-' prefix comes from the ancient Greek prefix πρωτο-. It means first, original, primary, or archaic.^a In the case of this record, proto- also means that the item in question is not well-understood or lacking academic consensus.

• What this means: The information is highly speculative or understood as accurate by a minority of scholars
• Why this is the case: The information listed is usually disputed amongst scholars, and generally lacking in written records or scholarly treatment
• Why it matters: Data and findings listed here may be considered 'fringe theories' or may otherwise be replaced by more credible data in the future
• Why it's included at all: We included this record because our internal data point signals suggest that this record, author, or direction is promising for future scholarly consensus (which is just a guess)

It's probably not safe to rely on these data as facts or certainties. If referencing them for scholarly works, we recommend prefacing data with indeterminate modifiers such as 'some evidence may suggest that . . .' or 'one interpretation by [scholar name] indicates . . .', and so forth.

^a Georg Autenrieth and Robert P. Keep, trans., A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges: Based Upon the German of Dr. Georg Autenrieth (New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1891), 245 launch.