As early as about 1600 BCE, Mesoamerican peoples mixed latex from a local tree, Castilla elastica, with juice from a morning glory vine. The result was tough, elastic rubber, used to make bouncing balls for their famous ballgame. MIT researchers recreated the recipe in 1999.
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.