WEBVTT - What Is the World's Oldest Book? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:10.240 Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Bolgabam here with today's question, what's 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.960 the oldest book in the world. At Bulgaria's National Museum 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.640 of History, there lives one top runner, a book comprising 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.200 six pages of beaten twenty four carrot gold covered with 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:24.760 a Truscan script, which is one of the few writing 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.320 systems that modern scholars have yet to fully comprehend, mostly 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.640 because there are so few lengthy examples of its surviving. 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.760 The book also features illustrations of a horse rider, a mermaid, 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:40.400 a harp and soldiers. According to reports, the book, exhibited 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.560 in two thousand three, was estimated at about two thousand, 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:47.280 five hundred years old, was found in southwestern Bulgaria in 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.040 an old tomb, and was donated to the museum by 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.880 the finder, who remained anonymous. Its age and authenticity were 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:58.080 confirmed by two independent scientists whose names also remain unknown. 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.160 This book is often cited as the world's oldest book 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.840 because it is the oldest book containing several pages that 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.280 we know about. There are older pages around, but not 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:14.200 bound together in any books, but the case isn't closed. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.120 The question of what is the oldest book in the 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.919 world will likely never be answered. First, there's the question 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:24.920 of what exactly is a book? Books are slippery artifacts. 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.360 Think of your most read paperback novel. It has a 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.440 physical presence, a specific shape and form that fits on 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.760 a shelf and requires dusting. It also has a non 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:38.080 physical form, the story itself and what it means to 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.560 you and the memories and emotions it conjures. And so 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:44.319 is the book more of a physical presence or is 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.480 the content more important than the shape or do they 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.680 both play an equal role? And take it a step 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.680 further and ask what if your favorite book wasn't printed 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.840 but handwritten, and that's still a book. What about if 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.160 you read it on an electronic device or it was 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:04.240 narrated to you. If printing defined what a book was, 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.800 then the oldest book would be the Guttenberg Bible, printed 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.840 in about fourt Of course, that was printed with movable type. 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.760 Chinese cultures were printing pages of book like structures using 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.639 carved wood plates and simple presses hundreds of years before Guttenberg. 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.120 And then take the Egyptian pharaohs. Their scribes were creating 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.120 songs and prayers to them close to three thousand years ago, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.960 but these were on papyrus scrolls, which could be considered 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:37.519 a book, albeit with only one very long page. When 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.320 writing the article this episode is based on the staff 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.359 at house stuff works dot Com interviewed Laurent Ferry, a 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.880 curator of rare books and manuscripts at Cornell University, about 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:51.120 all of this. He explained, these are questions scholars are 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.079 still wrestling with. For me, a book would be defined 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:59.200 by having a binding and supporting a world view by 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.200 this definition, and the collection of clay tablets maintained by Cornell, 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.640 also the largest collection in the world, wouldn't be considered 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.520 the world's oldest books. They aren't bound, and most are 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.720 legal proceedings or financial accountings, and don't espouse a worldview. 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.480 With his own definition in mind, for he said his 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.920 bet on the oldest books in the world would be 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.440 Homer's Iliad and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Indeed, the British 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.880 Museum's version of the Gilgamesh tale, written on clay tablets, 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.480 dates to about the seventh century d C. However, the 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.760 tablets aren't bound, so they're technically not a book in 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.680 that way, but they do come close, especially in the 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.080 sense that they propose a certain view of the world, 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.120 but we don't really know when the stories started or 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:51.119 how they evolved. For he said, this is another situation 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.400 to consider. These two stories are the product of a 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.000 very long oral tradition. We know roughly when the text 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.320 was fixed, but the stories pre existed the physical book, 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.160 and so the questions turn. Some people believe the Bible 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.240 was written shortly after the world was created, making it 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.560 necessarily the oldest book. Yet biblical scholars say the books 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.400 that make up the Bible were written over many hundreds 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.919 of years, and that many of the stories included in 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.600 it were set down centuries after the events that they 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:26.279 explore happened. Bringing religion or other worldviews into the question 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.920 begets more twists and turns. The eaching. The foundation book 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.360 for Daoist philosophy was allegedly written more than two thousand 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.160 years ago, and there are likely other more obscure religions 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.800 that claim to have a toe hold in centuries further 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.280 in the past, and that there are more recent printings 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:48.919 are merely modern manifestations of those ancient texts. For free, 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.719 the quest for the world's oldest book is just that 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.800 a quest, he said, If you find the oldest book, 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.680 you find, the oldest truth, the oldest revelation. This is 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.000 a rev elation of original things. This is what humans 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:08.080 always look for. So although today's question will likely never 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.320 be answered conclusively, this may not be a bad thing. 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.080 The simple asking of the question leads to insight, whether 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:19.400 from an archaeological perspective or a philosophical perspective, and it 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.479 addresses the ultimate point of books, whether they're on clay 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.560 tablets or online. Summed up by free we wouldn't be 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:35.159 human without books. Today's episode is based on the article 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.480 what is the oldest book in the World on how 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.120 stuff works dot com written by Eric Baxter. Brain Stuff 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.320 is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.239 stuff works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.280 For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:51.880 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:52.640 favorite shows.