Fragments of Chinese paper date back to the 2nd century BCE, and tradition credits the official Cai Lun with perfecting it in 105 CE. The secret reached the Islamic world in the 8th century, where Samarkand and then Baghdad became major paper centers. Europe only made its own paper from the 12th century, in Spain.
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.