The direct historical approach was an archaeological and anthropological technique invented by the American scholar William Duncan Strong during the 1920s and 1930s.

Strong argued that he could extrapolate backwards in time from known historical periods into prehistory. By studying a site with known historical occupations and then excavating it to establish prehistoric activity, he reasoned that by using analogy and homology based on the historical data, he could theorise about the past society that had used the site long before the historical records were made.

The approach works well where continuity can be demonstrated but is less useful in regions where significant differences between prehistoric and historic societies are known.