...If this document is authentic, then a complete reappraisal will be necessary. Our idea of that era is based upon the fact that the only writings we have are lists, inventories, and fragments of what might be poetry, or might merely be descriptions of exotic objects belonging to now-lost inventories.
A preliminary reading suggests that in fact writing -- and dare I say? -- thinking very like our own existed at that early date. If that is true, however, several questions arise, with which I will attempt to grapple in a moment.
The document came into my possession via a source I cannot name. The document itself is a copy, made very recently, and so of course it may be a forgery, a fiction. I was skeptical myself until I read it, and still harbor serious doubts -- or more precisely fears -- about its authenticity.
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