In the 17th century, nutmeg grew only on the tiny Banda Islands in Indonesia and was worth a fortune in Europe. At the Treaty of Breda in 1667, the Dutch held on to the islet of Run, rich in nutmeg trees, while the English kept New Amsterdam, the future New York. A spice outweighed a future megacity.
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.