Ancient literature

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History of Literature
Ancient literature
Arabic literature
Babylonian literature
Chinese literature
Greek literature
Hebrew literature
Indian literature
Japanese literature
Latin literature
Persian literature

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The History of literature begins with the history of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, although the oldest literary texts that have come down to us date to a full millennium after the invention of writing, to the late 3rd millennium BC. The earliest literary authors known by name are Ptahhotep and Enheduanna, dating to ca. the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, respectively.

Texts handed down by oral tradition may predate their fixation in written form by several centuries, or, in extreme cases, even millennia. Classical Antiquity is usually considered to begin with Homer, in the 8th century BC. Many older literary texts are known, but often difficult to date. This includes the texts in the Hebrew Bible, the Pentateuch being traditionally dated to the 15th century BC, while modern scholars put it to the 10th century BC at the very earliest. An early example is the so called Egyptian Book of the Dead which was eventually written down in the Papyrus of Ani around 250 BC but probably dates from about the 18th century BC.

1 List of ancient texts
2 See also

Early Bronze Age (ca. 3300 to 2000 BC) approximate dates shown
- 6600 BC Jiahu script from Henan, China.
- 2600 BC Sumerian texts from Abu Salabikh, including the Instructions of Shuruppak and the Kesh Temple Hymn
- 2400 BC Egyptian Pyramid Texts, including the Cannibal Hymn (in parts likely composed from as early as 3000 BC^{[citation needed]})
- 2400 BC Palermo stone
- 2350 BC The Maxims of Ptahhotep
- 2270 BC Sumerian Enheduanna tablet hymns (earliest author known by name)
- 2050 BC Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu
- 2000 BC Egyptian Coffin Texts inscriptions
- 2000 BC Sumerian Lament for Ur
- 2000 BC Sumerian Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta

Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000 to 1600 BC) approximate dates shown
- 1900 BC Egyptian Westcar Papyrus; assumed age of the text, the surviving papyrus copy dates to ca. 1700 BC.
- 1950-1750 BC Kultepe texts
- The Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumerian version)
- Egyptian Story of Sinuhe (in Hieratic)
- Enûma Elish (Akkadian version)
- Atra-Hasis epic (Akkadian version)
- 1780 BC Babylonian Code of Hammurabi stele
- 1750 BC Hittite Anitta tablets
- 1650 BC Egyptian Ipuwer papyrus
- 1600 BC Chinese Oracle bones

Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600 to 1200 BC) approximate dates shown
- 1500 BC Hittite military oath
- 1500-1100 BC Vedic Sanskrit Rigveda (redaction likely around 800 BC)
- 1550 BC Egyptian Book of the Dead
- 1400 BC Hurrian & Ugaritic Amarna Letters
- 1330 BC Great Hymn to the Aten
- the Babylonian Poor Man of Nippur
- the Epic of Gilgamesh (Akkadian version)

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