When Ramesses II's mummy was studied, black peppercorns were found placed in his nostrils during embalming; he died in 1213 BCE. Black pepper grows in southern India, thousands of kilometers away. More than 3,000 years before the great sea voyages, spices were already moving between continents.
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.