In Leang Karampuang cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a painting shows three human-like figures around a wild pig. Dated in 2024 to at least 51,200 years old, it is the oldest known figurative scene. Long before Lascaux, people on the other side of the world were already turning stories into images.
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.