What is the oldest book in the world?

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Sweet Pea makes an interesting argument. In my undergraduate days I took a class called the Retoric of Argument which is the science of argument. In that class we learned to argue based on definitions of words, and that is exactly what sweet pea is doing. We also learned the Mirriam and Webster is generally recongized as the arbiture of definitions, in other words what Mirriam and Webster says a word means is generally what it means, and a book according to Mirriam and Webster is:

a long written or printed literary composition

In other words Sweet Peas book has not stopped being a book even though the binding is gone. The definition also would imply that a cave drawing would also be defined as a book since its a wrttien composition and can be very long. Anyone care to debate?

That is sophomoric.

[Victoria]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

The definition also would imply that a cave drawing would also be defined as a book since its a wrttien composition and can be very long. Anyone care to debate?

Yep. The caves have paintings - not books. Lot's of collaged paintings incorporate printed words, but the words are employed primarily as graphic elements - even if the meaning of the word is sometimes significant.

Paintings and books can both covey ideas, but they employ different means to do so.

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by astra

Interesting article

Going back for a moment to the OP's question, I've always assumed that the Gilgamesh epos is the oldest, but this one must run it close.