Book History

Question 1

symbols in the Indus Valley Script used on seals at Harappa and Mohenjodaro in India and Pakistan

Answer 1

c.3500–1900 BCE

Question 2

thousands of clay tablets impressed with cuneiform in southern Mesopotamian cities such as Uruk and, later, Babylon; earliest hiero- glyphic inscriptions, on Egyptian grave goods

Answer 2

c.3200 BCE

Question 3

earliest surviving blank papyrus rolls in Egypt

Answer 3

c.3000

Question 4

earliest known surviving inscribed papyrus scrolls and wooden writ-
ing boards in Egypt

Answer 4

c.2600

Question 5

scrolls created from animal skins in Egypt; earliest known Chinese writing, on pottery and bronze containers

Answer 5

c.2500

Question 6

waxed wooden writing boards used in Mesopotamia

Answer 6

c.2100

Question 7

alphabets, simplifying hieroglyphs, incised on rocks in quarries in
Sinai desert

Answer 7

c.1800 BCE

Question 8

writing on clay (Linear A and hieroglyphs) adopted in Crete; cunei- form tablets used across the Middle East, from Cyprus to Iran

Answer 8

c.1600 BCE

Question 9

Vedas, Hinduism’s most sacred texts, composed in India

Answer 9

c.1500–1000 BCE

Question 10

writing on clay tablets with writing in Linear B in Crete

Answer 10

c.1400 BCE

Question 11

earliest surviving Chinese divination books on tortoiseshell from the city of Anyang; indirect evidence for bamboo strip books

Answer 11

c.1200 BCE

Question 12

Olmec and Zapotec writing systems developed in Mesoamerica

Answer 12

c.900 BCE

Question 13

presumed adoption of papyrus in Greece

Answer 13

c.690 BCE

Question 14

letters and legal documents in Old Hebrew on leather and papyrus

Answer 14

c.670 BCE

Question 15

Ashurbanipal’s library in Nineveh, Assyria

Answer 15

c.650

Question 16

first writing on silk in China

Answer 16

c.650 BCE

Question 17

Sanskrit Ramayana epic created

Answer 17

c.500–100 BCE

Question 18

widespread use of alphabetic Aramaic on leather and papyrus across the Achaemenid Persian empire

Answer 18

c.500 BCE

Question 19

earliest surviving bamboo and wooden strip books in China

Answer 19

c.450 BCE

Question 20

composition of the Sanskrit Mahabharata, the world’s longest epic poem

Answer 20

c.400 BCE–400 CE

Question 21

earliest surviving Indian and Sinhalese potsherds bearing Brahmi inscriptions

Answer 21

c.400 BCE

Question 22

earliest surviving papyrus roll from Greece

Answer 22

c.340 BCE

Question 23

creation of the Hebrew and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls

Answer 23

c.300 BCE–150 CE

Question 24

foundation of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt

Answer 24

c.300 BCE

Question 25

invention of a South Asian writing system dated to the reign of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka and inspired by the promotion of Buddhism

Answer 25

268–232 BCE

Question 26

birch-bark and palm-leaf books used in South Asia

Answer 26

c.200 BCE

Question 27

increased use in China of pieces of silk for writing, partly replacing bamboo

Answer 27

c.150 BCE

Question 28

earliest known surviving fragments of paper (from the Han capital Chang’an (Xi’an, China)

Answer 28

c.140–87 BCE

Question 29

Libertas Temple in Rome hosted the first public library

Answer 29

39 CE

Question 30

earliest known dated document from Roman Britain, a writing board from London

Answer 30

57 CE