Writing and literature arose between the seventh and fourth millennia BC. A wide variety of materials were used to write the text, including clay, silk, ceramics, papyrus and even gold. So the question of the oldest book on Earth depends a lot on how you categorize it.
We tried to combine the ten oldest surviving books in the world into a single list.
10. Gutenberg Bible - approximate age: 559 years
Also known as the 42-line Bible (by the number of lines per page), this book is included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive Bible in the world. It is also considered by many to be the world's first printed book. In fact, this is not the case. The book, created by Gutenberg, is one of the first printed editions. It differs from other incunabula in its excellent design quality.
Its first copies were printed in 1454-1455. Johannes Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany. There are 48 known original copies of the Gutenberg Bible.
9. Celtic Psalter - 938 years old
The next in the top 10 oldest books in human history is the pocket psalter kept at the University of Edinburgh. It is believed to have been created in the 11th century AD. This makes it the oldest surviving book in Scotland.
It is believed that the Celtic Psalter was created for a very important person. And the fact that some of the book's decorations were made in the English Winchester style may indicate the purpose of the book for St. Margaret of Scotland, who descends from the Anglo-Saxon royal family.
8. Diamond Sutra - 1150 years
This Buddhist sacred text is the second oldest printed book in the world.
The "diamond sutra" was discovered in the Mogao caves in China in the early twentieth century. It contains the sayings of Buddha Shakyamuni, which should be rethought by those who seek to comprehend the path of the bodhisattvas.
Now one of the oldest books in the world is kept in the British Museum, but not available to visitors. Light is destructive for her, so we can only gaze at the photos posted on the Web.
7. Siddur - 1178 years
Discovered in 2013, the ancient Jewish prayer book "siddur" dates from around 840 AD. This parchment containing 40,000 sacred texts is so old that it contains Babylonian vowels. This allowed experts to attribute the book to the times of the Gaons (spiritual leaders of the Jewish people) in Babylon.
6. Book of Kells - 1218 years
The Book of Kells, aka The Book of Columba, is housed in the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland. It is believed to have been created by Celtic monks around 800 AD.
The book is lavishly decorated with colored miniatures and ornaments, and contains four Gospels in Latin. Due to the numerous embellishments, the text of the manuscript on some pages is difficult to distinguish. However, the Book of Kells was hardly intended for reading, but rather for use during divine services. And the reader quoted the text from memory.
5. Ushnisha Vijaya Dharani sutra - 1314 years old
In 1966, the Ushnisha Vijaya Dharani sutra was found in the South Korean Buddhist temple of Bulguksa. It was created using woodcuts and is the earliest example of a printed book in the world.
This scroll was printed between 704 and 751 CE. on Japanese paper tree paper. The printed letters of the sutra found in Korea compare favorably with the Chinese "Diamond Sutra", as does the tissue paper.
4. Cuthbert's Gospel - 1320 years
The oldest book in Europe is the Gospel of St. Cuthbert, bought by the British Library in 2012 for £ 9 million.
The book was a gift placed in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, one of the early British Christian leaders. It dates from around 698 AD.
Subsequently, the book, along with the relics of the saint, was transferred to Durham Cathedral so that they would not be destroyed by one of the Viking raids.
3. Library from Nag Hammadi - 1693
This is one of the oldest libraries in the world. It contains 13 leather papyrus codices, which were discovered in 1945 in the Egyptian village of Nag Hammadi.
Books containing Gnostic texts date back to around the first half of the fourth century AD. They are written in Coptic, and are believed to have been copied from the Greek original. The Nag Hammadi codes are currently in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt.
2. Gold tables from Pyrgi - over 2500 years
Three gold plates were found in 1964 during excavations of a sanctuary in the ancient Etruscan port of Pyrgi, Italy. They have holes along the edges, and scientists believe the plates were once connected to each other.
On two plates there are inscriptions in Etruscan language, and one contains text in Phoenician (Punic) language.
The tablets from Pyrgi tell us that the ruler Tefarius Veliana from the city of Cere brought gifts to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, also known as Ishtar.
1. Golden Book of the Etruscans - 2678 years
In May 2003, the Bulgarian National Historical Museum in Sofia put on public display an ancient book consisting of six pages of gold connected by two gold rings. Plates measuring 5 by 4.5 cm contain the Orphic text written in Etruscan language, as well as the image of a horse, rider, siren, lyre and soldier. The content of the book suggests that it was created for the funeral of a noble person who was a member of the Orpheus cult, which arose in ancient Greece.
The oldest multi-page book in the world dates from approximately 660 BC. It was donated to the museum by an 87-year-old Bulgarian man from Macedonia, who wished to remain anonymous. He found the treasure in a tomb excavated 60 years ago when he was a soldier working on the construction of a canal along the Struma River. According to the director of the museum, Bozhidar Dimitrov, the find was confirmed by experts in Sofia and London.
The Etruscans were an ancient people who migrated from Lydia (located in the territory of modern Turkey) and settled in central Italy in the first millennium BC.