The Prehistoric Archaeology Division is one of the three traditional research divisions of the Institute of Archaeology. Its predecessor, the Neolithic Research Group, was established in 1953 and headed by Yin Da. In 1978, it was renamed the First Research Division, with An Zhimin serving as its first director. In 1996, it became the Division of Primitive Society Studies, and in 2003, the Prehistoric Archaeology Division. In 2004, Prehistoric Archaeology was designated a Key Discipline of the CASS.

The division currently has 14 permanent fieldwork teams. Its research focuses on the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic in China; the origins of agriculture; the emergence and development of Neolithic cultures, as well as their typologies, lineages, distributions and socioeconomic patterns; and the processes of social structure formation and transformation. The division also engages in research related to the origins of Chinese civilization and prehistoric China.