In 2019, researchers found lapis lazuli particles in the dental tartar of a woman buried around 1100 near a German monastery. She probably licked her brush while painting manuscripts with this precious blue. The pigment came from mines in Afghanistan, more than 5,000 km away: global trade, right down to a smile.
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.