In 2013, French Egyptologist Pierre Tallet unearthed the oldest inscribed papyri ever found at Wadi al-Jarf, on the Red Sea coast, dating back about 4,500 years. Among them was the logbook of Merer, an inspector in charge of a crew of around 40 men. Day by day, he recorded shipping limestone blocks by boat from the Tura quarries to Giza for Khufu's pyramid. It is a first-hand account from someone who worked on the site.
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.