Long before anyone planted a seed, our hunter-gatherer ancestors were already living alongside dogs. Genetic and archaeological evidence shows that dogs descend from Ice Age wolves domesticated at least 14,000 years ago, several millennia before the first crops and livestock. Humanity's best friend is also its oldest domestication.
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.