We picture it as ancient, but the Aztec Empire proper began in 1428 with the Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan. It collapsed in 1521, when the Spanish arrived with many Indigenous allies. Less than a century: barely a long human lifetime for one of the most famous powers in the Americas.
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.