The image of a single fire wiping out ancient knowledge is misleading. The blaze during Caesar's war in 48 BCE caused losses, but the library mostly declined over centuries: scholars leaving, funding drying up, repeated wars. The story of its destruction by Caliph Omar is regarded as a later legend.
Around 2300 BCE, Enheduanna, daughter of King Sargon of Akkad, became high priestess of the Moon god at Ur. She composed hymns to the goddess Inanna and put her name to them. She is the oldest person identified as the author of a literary work, about 1,500 years before Homer.
Squeeze Earth's 4.5 billion years into a single 24-hour day. Homo sapiens shows up around 11:59:54 p.m., roughly six seconds before midnight. All of written history, from Sumerian tablets to today, fits into the final tenth of a second. A cosmic blink.