Much has been written, for example, about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the 1st century BC, and the innumerable key texts which are believed to have been lost forever to the flames. The problems of creating a uniform global history of literature are compounded by the fact that many texts have been lost over the millennia, either deliberately, by accident, or by the total disappearance of the originating culture. Moreover, given the significance of distance as a cultural isolator in earlier centuries, the historical development of literature did not occur at an even pace across the world. Scholars have often disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like 'literature' than anything else the definition is largely subjective. The very first writings from ancient Sumer by any reasonable definition do not constitute literature-the same is true of some of the early Egyptian hieroglyphics or the thousands of logs from ancient Chinese regimes. Literature and writing, though connected, are not synonymous.
See also: Sumerian literature, Ancient Egyptian literature, and Babylonian literature
