Ancient literature

	History of Literature
	Bronze Age literature
	Sumerian; Egyptian; Assyro-Babylonian
	Classical literatures
	Chinese; Greek; Hebrew; Latin; Pahlavi; Pali; Sanskrit; Syriac; Tamil
	Medieval literature
	Anglo-Saxon; Arabic; Byzantine; Dutch; French; German; Indian; Irish; Italian; Japanese; Kannada; Nepal Bhasa; Norse; Persian; Telugu; Welsh
	Early Modern literature
	Renaissance literature; Baroque literature
	Modern literature
	18th century; 19th century; 20th century; 21st century
	v • d • e

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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 such as the Hindu Rigveda may predate their fixation in written form by several centuries, or, in extreme cases, even millennia. In ancient Iran, Avesta and Gahani poems and Gathas were written around 1000 BC. 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 1240 BC, but other individuals' versions of the book probably date from about the 18th century BC.

[edit] List of ancient texts

[edit] Bronze Age

Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) approximate dates shown
- 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
- 2000 BC Book of Job (early date) ^[1]

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 Hittite 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
- 1700 BC Eridu Genesis
- 1650 BC Egyptian Ipuwer papyrus

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
- ca. 15th to 14th c. BC: the earliest Mycenaean Greek Linear B inscriptions
- ca. 14th to 12th c. BC: Anyang oracle bone inscriptions
- 1330 BC Great Hymn to the Aten
- 1240 BC Papyrus of Ani, Book of the Dead
- the Babylonian Poor Man of Nippur
- the Epic of Gilgamesh (Akkadian version)
- the older Avesta on Ancient Iranian faiths
- Tale of Two Brothers from the Egyptian Papyrus D'Orbiney by the scribe Ennana.^[2]