The following is a list of the world's oldest surviving physical documents.
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 many other surviving written documents from Egypt later than the Narmer Palette but still more ancient than the Missal of Silos.
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.
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.
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, Egypt and others in Middle Egypt. The primary piece that is referred to as the Palermo stone is currently 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.
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 x 6 x 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
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]
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]
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]
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]
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.
Gabriel's Revelation is a stone tablet, written in ink.
A Scottish psalter, written in Latin, dating back to the 11th century CE[relevant? ] 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.