List of oldest documents

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The following is a list of the world's oldest surviving physical documents.

Contents

Each entry is the most ancient of each language or civilization. For example, the Narmer Palette may be the most ancient from Egypt, but there are many other surviving written documents from Egypt later than the Narmer Palette but still more ancient than the Missal of Silos.

List

35th–32nd centuries BCE

The Kish tablet, a small limestone tablet from the middle Uruk period of ancient Mesopotamia, contains pictographic inscriptions exemplifying an early precursor to Cuneiform. Many similar tablets have been found from the same period, all of which have proven difficult to date using radiocarbon dating; among these, the Kish tablet has the earliest proposed date of manufacture, although it may be from the later Uruk IV period, around 3200 BCE. [1]

The Kushim tablets from the same period feature possibly the oldest named person (Kushim).

Another Uruk Period clay tablet that featured names dating back to around 3100 BCE includes the names of a slave owner (Gal-Sal) and their two slaves (En-pap X and the woman Sukkalgir). This tablet was likely produced one or two generations after the Kushim Tablet. [2]

From the same period, the first named Egyptian ruler, Iry-Hor, has been found, as well as the soon-following, possibly oldest-named female ruler, Queen Ha, just before the contemporary of Narmer, Queen Neithhotep.

31st century BCE

The Narmer Palette, a carved slab of siltstone from the Early Dynastic Period of Ancient Egypt, contains some of the earliest known examples of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Notably, the palette contains carved Serekhs bearing the rebus symbols n'r (catfish) and mr (chisel). These are believed to be a phonetic representation of Narmer, the first Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt following their unification around 3100 BCE.

25th century BCE

The Palermo Stone, a stele, containing the names of Pharaohs and other information, is made of basalt. Fragments of the piece exist, with some of them reportedly found in Memphis and others in Middle Egypt. The primary piece that is referred to as the Palermo stone is currently[ when? ] on display in Italy, having been purchased by a Sicilian lawyer named Ferdinand Guidano in 1859.

The Diary of Merer (also known as Papyrus Jarf) is the name for papyrus logbooks written over 4,500 years ago by Merer, a middle ranking official with the title inspector (sHD). Buried in front of man-made-caves that served to store boats at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea coast, the papyri were found and excavated in 2013.

21st century BCE

According to the Guinness World Records, the oldest surviving love poem, a balbale, in the world is of Sumerian origin and written in cuneiform, discovered in Nippur, dated to 2031 BCE, called Istanbul #2461 by archaeologists. [3] Written on a clay tablet measuring 10.7 × 6 × 3.1 cm, [4] it is believed to have been written by a bride of the Sumerian king Shu-Sin, who reigned between 2037 BCE and 2029 BCE. The tablet is on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. [5]

Bridegroom, dear to my heart,

Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet,

Lion, dear to my heart,

Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.

— Istanbul #2461

18th century BCE

Dating back to 1800 BCE, to the Old Babylonian period, a clay tablet containing a recipe for squab was found, written in Akkadian cuneiform. No measurements, cooking times, nor preparation or cooking methods are given, stating only that one should cut the pigeon in half and make a mixture of water, fat, salt, breadcrumbs, milk-soaked herbs including onions, leeks, garlic, and an herb called "samidu", which was the equivalent of modern semolina. [6]

The complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir, a clay tablet written in Akkadian cuneiform found in Iraq, is the first recorded customer complaint. It was written by a customer named Nanni, who complains that copper which he purchased from the merchant Ea-Nasir was of the incorrect grade. [7]

14th century BCE

In 2010, a clay fragment bearing Akkadian cuneiform, comparable in size to that of an olive, was discovered by Israeli archaeologists during the excavation of a tower, the tower itself dating back to the 10th century BCE, in Jerusalem, that was determined to have originated in 14th century BCE. [8] The document, nearly 3,400 years old at the time of its discovery, was older than any other ancient text discovered in Jerusalem by at least 600 years. Further examination revealed that the clay had originated in the Jerusalem area and that the scribe responsible was highly skilled. [9] It is the only cuneiform text to have ever been discovered in the area. Previously, the oldest document found in Jerusalem was a tablet, found in the Shiloah water tunnel, dating back to 8th century BCE. [10]

13th century BCE

Extant direct records from the Shang dynasty date from approximately 1250 BCE. These records primarily consist of oracle bones and bronze inscriptions, and also include a small number of other writings on pottery, jade and other materials. [11]

4th century BCE

The oldest of the Dead Sea Scrolls are thought to date from this period, although some may be as recent as the 1st century CE. They are written almost entirely in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. About 30% of the Hebrew Bible is accounted for in these ancient scrolls and fragments, as well as a vast library of other historical, apocalyptic, legal, and devotional texts. [12]

2nd century BCE

The Nash Papyrus, a collection of four papyrus fragments written in Hebrew, was found in 1898, and was, prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known example of the written Hebrew language. The fragments contain parts of the Ten Commandments and the Shema Yisrael. The documents were acquired in Egypt, by W. L. Nash, and are believed to have originated in Faiyum, though it is possible they originated elsewhere.

1st century CE

Gabriel's Revelation is a stone tablet, written in ink.

11th century CE

A Scottish psalter, written in Latin, dating back to the 11th century CE[ relevant? – discuss ] is on display at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. [13] It's unknown as to how the university acquired the piece or where it originated. Photos of its pages show that, while its original binding is lost, the pages are still in remarkable condition, their colors still vibrant and words legible. [14]

The Missal of Silos is the oldest known surviving paper document (as opposed to parchment) of European origin in existence today, dating back to at least 1080 CE. It was made by the monastery at the Santa María la Real of Nájera.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papyrus</span> Writing and implement

Papyrus is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge. Papyrus can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumer</span> Ancient Mesopotamian civilization

Sumer is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. Like nearby Elam, it is one of the cradles of civilization, along with Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Erligang culture of the Yellow River valley, Caral-Supe, and Mesoamerica. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, a surplus which enabled them to form urban settlements. The world's earliest known texts come from the Sumerian cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, and date to between c. 3350 – c. 2500 BC, following a period of proto-writing c. 4000 – c. 2500 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Sumer</span> History of the Mesopotamian area called Sumer

The history of Sumer spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BCE in southern Mesopotamia, and is taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods. Sumer was the region's earliest known civilization and ended with the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BCE. It was followed by a transitional period of Amorite states before the rise of Babylonia in the 18th century BCE.

Uruk, today known as Warka, was a city in the ancient Near East situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates. The site lies 93 kilometers northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers southeast of ancient Nippur, and 24 kilometers southeast of ancient Larsa. It is 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clay tablet</span> Writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform

In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuneiform</span> Writing system of the ancient Near East

Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form their signs. Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system and was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adab (city)</span> Ancient Sumerian city between Girsu and Nippur

Adab or Udab was an ancient Sumerian city between Girsu and Nippur. It was located at the site of modern Bismaya or Bismya in the Wasit Province of Iraq. The city-god of Adab was Parag'ellilegarra (Panigingarra) "The Sovereign Appointed by Ellil".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Mesopotamia</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clay nail</span>

Used by Sumerians and other Mesopotamian cultures beginning in the third millennium BC, clay nails, also referred to as dedication or foundation pegs, cones, or nails, were cone-shaped nails made of clay, inscribed with cuneiform, baked, and stuck into the mudbrick walls to serve as evidence that the temple or building was the divine property of the god to whom it was dedicated. Versions were also made of metal, including castings with figurative designs, such as the Hurrian foundation pegs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cylinder seal</span> Form of seal used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface

A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally wet clay. According to some sources, cylinder seals were invented around 3500 BC in the Near East, at the contemporary sites of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia and slightly later at Susa in south-western Iran during the Proto-Elamite period, and they follow the development of stamp seals in the Halaf culture or slightly earlier. They are linked to the invention of the latter's cuneiform writing on clay tablets. Other sources, however, date the earliest cylinder seals to a much earlier time, to the Late Neolithic period in Syria, hundreds of years before the invention of writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of writing</span>

The history of writing traces the development of writing systems and how their use transformed and was transformed by different societies. The use of writing prefigures various social and psychological consequences associated with literacy and literary culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multilingual inscription</span> Inscription that includes the same text in two or more languages

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Khafajah or Khafaje, ancient Tutub, is an archaeological site in Diyala Governorate, Iraq 7 miles (11 km) east of Baghdad. Khafajah lies on the Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris. Occupied from the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods through the end of the Old Babylonian Empire, it was under the control of the Akkadian Empire and then the Third Dynasty of Ur in the 3rd millennium BC. It then became part of the empire of the city-state of Eshnunna lying 12 miles (19 km) southwest of that city, about 5 miles (8.0 km) from the ancient city of Shaduppum, and near Tell Ishchali, both which Eshnunna also controlled. It then fell to Babylonia before falling into disuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art of Mesopotamia</span>

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Wayne Horowitz is an archeologist and academic. He specialises in the ancient Near East and Assyriology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sîn-kāšid</span> King of Uruk

Sîn-kāšid was the king of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk during the first half of the 18th century BC. His precise dating is uncertain, perhaps ca. 1803–1770 BC corresponding to ca.1865–1833 BC, but likely to have been fairly long due to the voluminous building inscriptions extant for which he is best known and contemporary with Nur-Adad of Larsa and Enlil-bāni of Isin. His apparent lack of relationship with any of the preceding rulers of Uruk and his omission of mentioning his father in any of his inscriptions has led to the belief that he was the founder of a dynasty. He participated in a diplomatic marriage with Šallurtum, the daughter of Sūmû-la-Il, the second king of the First Babylonian Dynasty, as her name and epithets appear in the seal impressions of three clay bullae recovered from the remains of his palace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kushim (Uruk period)</span> Sumerian person, c. 3400–3000 BC

Kushim is supposedly the earliest known recorded name of a person in writing. The name "Kushim" is found on several Uruk period clay tablets used to record transactions of barley. It is uncertain if the name refers to an individual, a generic title of an officeholder, or an institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ugaritic texts</span> Corpus of ancient cuneiform texts discovered in Syria

The Ugaritic texts are a corpus of ancient cuneiform texts discovered in 1928 in Ugarit and Ras Ibn Hani in Syria, and written in Ugaritic, an otherwise unknown Northwest Semitic language. Approximately 1,500 texts and fragments have been found to date. The texts were written in the 13th and 12th centuries BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egypt–Mesopotamia relations</span> Middle Eastern international relations

Egypt–Mesopotamia relations were the relations between the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, in the Middle East. They seem to have developed from the 4th millennium BCE, starting in the Uruk period for Mesopotamia and the half a millennium younger Gerzean culture of Prehistoric Egypt, and constituted a largely one way body of influences from Mesopotamia into Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proto-cuneiform</span> Early proto-writing system

The proto-cuneiform script was a system of proto-writing that emerged in Mesopotamia, eventually developing into the early cuneiform script used in the region's Early Dynastic I period. It arose from the token-based system that had already been in use across the region in preceding millennia. While it is known definitively that later cuneiform was used to write the Sumerian language, it is still uncertain what the underlying language of proto-cuneiform texts were.

References

  1. ↑ Hayes, John L., 1990 A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts, Undena Publications, p.266
  2. ↑ Krulwich, Robert (2015-08-19). "Who's the First Person in History Whose Name We Know?". National Geographic . Archived from the original on July 7, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Oldest love poem". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  4. ↑ Fant, Clyde E.; Reddish, Mitchell G. (2008-10-15). Lost Treasures of the Bible: Understanding the Bible Through Archaeological Artifacts in World Museums. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN   9780802828811.[ verification needed ]
  5. ↑ Sebnem Arsu. The Oldest Line in the World // The New York Times, 14-Feb-2006. [ verification needed ]
  6. ↑ "Mesopotamian Ingredients".
  7. ↑ "Letters - Archaeology Magazine". www.archaeology.org. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  8. ↑ "Oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem discovered". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  9. ↑ "Oldest Known Document Uncovered in Jerusalem". Voice of America. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  10. ↑ "Tiny fragment bears oldest script found in Jerusalem". The Daily Telegraph. 2010-07-12. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  11. ↑ Qiu, Xigui, 2000 Chinese writing, trans. by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman, Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, ISBN   978-1-55729-071-7. (English translation of Wénzìxué Gàiyào 文字學概要, Shangwu, 1988.)
  12. ↑ Davies, Philip R. "Dead Sea Scrolls". britannica.com. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  13. ↑ "Scotland's oldest surviving book still in Scotland: The Celtic Psalter | Transceltic - Home of the Celtic nations". www.transceltic.com. 14 July 2017. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  14. ↑ "Search Results: All Fields similar to 'Celtic and Psalter' and What equal to 'Celtic Psalter, 11th C.' - University of Edinburgh". images.is.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
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