History of Literature

Earliest Form of Writing

3400 BCE

The first examples of writing seem to have originated in Mesopotamia, written by Sumerians. These were recorded on clay tablets in a form of writing called cuneiform.

First Examples of Literature

2500 BCE

The "Kesh Temple Hymn" and the "Instructions of Shuruppak" are the earliest recorded pieces of literature, the first being about the Kesh Temple and the dieties that inhabited it, while the second is a piece of "wisdom literature," supposedly passed down from King Shuruppak to his son.