# oldest book **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 18, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-book/225105 "2004-01-18T14:55:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-book/225105/1 "2004-01-18T14:55:41Z")
What is the oldest surviving book or document in the world? I mean physically surviving, not a later copy of an ancient work. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-book/225105/2 "2004-01-18T15:07:50Z")
Depends what you mean by “book”. Does it have to have a cover? Does it have to be bound? The oldest mechanically printed book is the [Gutenberg Bible](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index.asp?id=48249), printed in 1455. However, there are various scrolls and collections of parchment and vellum that are way older than that. A Google search for “oldest book” turned up [this page](http://www.antique-antiques.com/old-books-worlds-oldest-book.shtml), which claims an Estruscan work that is 2.5 thousand years old. ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-book/225105/3 "2004-01-18T16:15:12Z")
If you’re wiling to include clay tablets, I think the oldest story we have is the epic of Gilgamesh, going back many thousands of years. If you’re willing to include things of a non-literary nature, there are ledgers and lists that go back farther than that. ---
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-book/225105/4 "2004-01-18T22:08:23Z")
I was looking for the oldest paper or vellum or papyrus book or document. Although now that I have started this, can anyone state what the specific oldest document on any media would be? JJIMM, thank you for the Etruscan link. Too bad we don’t have Marcus Aurelius around to translate it for us. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-book/225105/5 "2004-01-19T11:12:43Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > The oldest mechanically printed book is the [Gutenberg Bible](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index.asp?id=48249), printed in 1455. Actually, not by a long shot. The Gutenberg Bible is the first mechanically printed document _using movable type_. An important distinction as there are mechanically printed Buddhist sutras at Horyu-ji temple that date to the ninth century and I’m sure they’re not the oldest. One contender for olest document is an [Egyptian clay tablet](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/235724.stm) that would date from around 3300 to 3200 BCE. It reads: “mountain of light”, which is a place name, and I think is thought to be a tax-related document. There is also [another tablet](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/334517.stm) from Harappa, now in Pakistan. It is thought to date to 3500 BCE and is untranslatable. I’m not sure what is believed to be _the_ oldest papyrus but the [Rhind Papyrus](http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/writing/ccwp10/benny/rhind.htm) is not only pretty old (c. 1650 BCE) it’s also pretty cool. Even older, though, and maybe a contender is the [Prisse Papyrus](http://gallica.bnf.fr/scripts/mediator.exe?L=6300004&I=1&F=C). It dates to around 1900 BCE and is a copy of a work refered to as the teachings of Ptahhotep. [Here](http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/literature/ptahhotep.html) is a transliteration and translation of the work. Hope this helps!