The earliest known written literature comes to us from ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) and ancient Egypt. The earliest known specific text is Sumerian, the first civilization in Mesopotamia, and is called the Instructions of Shuruppak . It dates to over 4.6 thousand years ago and is much much older than the Iliad, Rigveda, and Bible.
The Instructions of Shuruppak is a collection of folk wisdom designed to teach good behaviour. You can think of it as the world’s first self-help book. However, the author of these guidelines is not an influencer or celebrity like Oprah. Instead, the text tells of a mythical king with advice for his son Ziusudra, the survivor of a Flood myth. In the Instructions, the name of this king is given as Shuruppak, but in other examples of Mesopotamian mythology, this king is instead said to be from Shuruppak.
You can read the translated text here. Much of the instructions are in a “You should not” style and appear to be the kind of things any typical parent might say. Some funny ones are that you should not boast in beer halls, loiter around when there is a fight, or buy any braying donkeys. Except for that last one, these could make good advice for just about anyone. Yet they can also be enigmatic: “Who works with leather will eventually work with his own leather”. They can range from the misogynistic “A woman with her own property ruins the house” to the timeless “A loving heart maintains a family; a hateful heart destroys a family”.
People who are familiar with the Greek Iliad will know that the first few lines call on the Muses to sing. I think it is interesting how the Instructions of Shuruppak begins. Here is the translated first few lines:
In those days, in those far remote days, in those nights, in those faraway nights, in those years, in those far remote years…
Do you notice something peculiar? I find it fascinating that the most ancient example of literature starts this way. It is over 4.5 millennia old and yet it starts with a reference to an even more ancient time. The irony is pretty funny. Imagine you are an archeologist reading this ancient document and the first thing it tells you is basically “You think I’m old? Let me tell you about this!”
But there’s more. This isn’t the only piece of Sumerian literature that starts like this. In 1700 BC, the Epic of Gilgamesh was finally written down in Akkadian. However, it used source material from earlier Sumerian poems dating to 2250-2100 BC. One of these poems starts with the lines:
In those days, in those distant days, in those nights, in those remote nights, in those years, in those distant years; in days of yore…
This was written approximately 400 years after the Instructions of Shurrupak. Yet the openings of the poems are so very similar. Perhaps it was a part of a common story-telling formula. Additionally, this common reference to an even more ancient time illustrates two points. Firstly, people have always been curious about the past and this has often been reflected in their stories. Homer sings of the Trojan War hundreds of years after it ended. The 13th century Icelandic Volsung saga tells the tale of a family from almost 1000 years before. And let’s not forget that famous fairy tale opener “Once upon a time”. Secondly, civilization is old, and its history is incomplete. Here we have the oldest known document, from the oldest known civilization: ancient Sumer. The key word here is “known”. There is a lot of evidence that Sumer is world’s oldest complex civilization. However, some claim that Egypt or the Harrapan civilization in modern-day Pakistan are slightly older. New archaeological evidence could prove this, prove Sumer is older than previously thought, or that another place may be older than all three. Yet, many ancient items are prevented from being found by modern archaeologists because they are perishable. Instead of being buried and later excavated, they rot away and are lost forever. On the other hand, a new text or clay tablet could always be found, and an older version of a myth referenced. The opening lines of Instructions of Shurrupak hint that these artifacts are out there still.