We only know about when humans mastered fire or started using metal. But we know the exact date when the first powered flight took place. What are some really early “first ____” we know the date of for sure?
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Big Bang, T=0.
Well… Maybe.
Time probably predates the big bang
I kind of wonder if time might be infinite in both directions, just because having a definitive beginning or end would seem to violate the conservation of matter and energy.
Why? Conversation of energy doesn’t include time in any way. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
If we know that time precisely and accurately, then we don’t know any other times more precisely than millions or billions of years ballpark
There is no definite date, but I do love the circa 1750 BCE “oldest customer complaint,” so please forgive me.
Now, when you had come, you spoke saying thus: ‘I will give good ingots to Gimil-Sin’; this you said to me when you had come, but you have not done it. You have offered bad ingots to my messenger, saying ‘If you will take it, take it; if you will not take it, go away.’ Who am I that you are treating me in this manner – treating me with such contempt? and that between gentlemen such as we are.
I have written to you to receive my money, but you have neglected [to return] it. Repeatedly you have made them [messengers] return to me empty-handed through foreign country. Who is there amongst the Dilmun traders who has acted against me in this way? You have treated my messenger with contempt.
And further with regard to the silver that you have taken with you from my house you make this discussion. And on your behalf I gave 18 talents of copper to the palace, and Sumi-abum also gave 18 talents of copper, apart from the fact that we issued the sealed document to the temple of Samas. With regard to that copper, as you have treated me, you have held back my money in a foreign territory, although you are obligated to hand it over to me intact.
You will learn that here in Ur I will not accept from you copper that is not good. In my house, I will choose and take the ingots one by one. Because you have treated me with contempt, I shall exercise against you my right of selecting the copper.
circa 1750 BCE
here in Ur
Wow, I never really thought about how long Ur has stood. The city was already 2000 years old in 1750 BCE
Shout-out to my man Ea-Nasir over at [email protected] !
Do you think Ea-Nasir would be ashamed that people over 3 millennia later are learning about how shitty his copper was, or would he be proud that people still speak his name?
That’s a tough one! He clearly didn’t care much about the reputation of his business, and in fact the only reason we know of him at all is that he saved the complaints he got! Most of us will have our names spoken for the last time when our children die; being remembered at all beyond, say, 100 years after your death is a heck of an accomplishment.
He clearly didn’t care much about the reputation of his business, and in fact the only reason we know of him at all is that he saved the complaints he got!
I dunno, we’re just assuming he kept them for the sick pleasure of it. Maybe he was collecting evidence before he lodged a formal complaint with his material supplier?
Or he could have had an excellent product and kept the complaints in the same way people nowadays with excellent products show off the idiot one star reviews.
That’s a possibility!
And people say there’s no niche communities on Lemmy.
It’s low-volume, but one of my favorites.
Low volume and high quality, unlike ea nasir’s copper
Bazinga!
Fuck Ea-Nasir. All my homies hate Ea-Nasir
How can we know there weren’t earlier consumer complaints that didn’t survive tho?
Yeah, that’s just the earliest known written complaint. And since the city was already two thousand years old at the time, the odds of there having been more are very high.
It’s relatively easy for recent things related to big technological advances (first phone call, first man in space…); but it’s nearly impossible for really old thing, because while you can find out one really old thing existed at one time, it’s always merely the oldest known occurence. An earlier one might’ve not left surviving traces, or it’s traces might’ve not been found yet…
My first thought was the code of Hammurabi, as the first ever set of laws. But it turns out we know of several sets of laws from before then.
Then I was thinking maybe the Pope, given that it should be well chronicled. But it turns out Peter was the first Pope (who knew?), so we’re relying on Biblical timings which aren’t exact.
So now I’m going to say “something Chinese”. China’s recorded history goes back a lot further than Europe’s, but I don’t really know much about it to say anything more useful than that. But did you know that writing predates the iron age in China, unlike most places? (Usually, the invention of writing changes it from the iron age “prehistory” into the written “history”)
What I think is also interesting is that the Chinese written language is still pretty much the same now as it was when it was created. So people today can read ancient texts and not need a layer of interpretation other than the context of the time.
Unlike the Bible. No modern human is a native speaker of Aramaic.
Egypt has the longest unbroken record of it’s history. It may or may not have been the first civilization to begin keeping a written record of it’s major events. The other 2 contenders are Mesopotamia and Sumer but most records from those are lost. Egypt’s records were also lost but large portions have been rediscovered in burial tombs. Egypt began it’s chronology (~3500BCE) at least a thousand years before China(~2500BCE).
Probably November 30, 3340 B.C - this solar eclipse
April 16th, 1178 B.C. : the day Odysseus returns in the Odyssey.
https://www.universetoday.com/15253/homers-odyssey-may-chronicle-ancient-eclipse/.
Pretty neat
When was the first artist signed work? There’s some pottery that has artist emblems in it, but signing art doesn’t seem to be a thing until the Renaissance. Who did it first?
If the artist didn’t sign something, maybe a buyer or a patron left a mark.
Some dated statue or completed building?
