In 1386 in Falaise, Normandy, a sow that had killed an infant was tried, sentenced and hanged in public, dressed in human clothes. Far from an isolated case, such trials are recorded across Europe from the 13th to the 18th century: pigs, bulls and horses before judges, and even rats and insects targeted by church courts. For historian Michel Pastoureau, these trials staged an exemplary justice, carried out with full legal ritual.
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.