The Tale of Gengi is for 11th century CE, not BCE.
I’m pretty sure this tablet is fake, but I do remember how similar people in those times were to us when I read the translated tablets from that period. One that I remember most was talking about a parent who tried to bribe a teacher to give his son better grades.
Don’t forget the Egyptian tablet recording work absences from 1250 BCE. Not much has changed.
Damn I wish I could justify work absence with “brewing beer”
Yes, you are entirely correct, that was a typo on my part.
I’m curious though, why callt that the earliest? Going by the dictionary definition of a novel (A fictitious tale or narrative, longer than a short story, having some degree of complexity and development of characters; it is usually organized as a time sequence of events, and is commonly intended to exhibit the operation of the passions, and often of love), there are several ancient works that I’d think would fall into that category (or do epic poems not count?). I just checked Wikipedia and I see there’s a whole article on Ancient Greek novels.
Even going by those, you’re looking at over 2600 years of temporal distance.
