Cited chronology · Uncertainty preserved
When do these texts enter the record?
Compare composition and earliest written-attestation windows without converting scholarly ranges into false precision.
47 text chronology assertions
Temporal overlap is not evidence of contact, borrowing, ancestry, or influence. Those require separate, cited relationship claims.
Temporal overlap is not evidence of contact, borrowing, ancestry, or influence. Those require separate, cited relationship claims.
Where do the windows cluster and overlap?
Band width reflects the full derived bounds of each cited date bucket. Dashed outlines mark disputed chronology; blue bands are attestations rather than composition claims.
- Approximate composition
- Disputed date
- Written attestation
Dates, uncertainty, and sources
The table is the complete semantic alternative to the chart. Existing prose dating remains in each text record; these structured assertions make sorting and visualization possible.
| Text | Assertion | Window | Certainty and caveat | Tradition context | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Epic of Gilgamesh | Composition | Late 2nd millennium BCE | Approximate | Ancient Mesopotamian religion |
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| Atra-ḫasīs | Composition | 17th century BCE Old Babylonian recension | Approximate | Ancient Mesopotamian religion |
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| Ludlul bēl nēmeqi | Composition | Kassite period; anchored near the reign of Nazi-Maruttaš (c. 1307–1282 BCE) | Disputed A royal mention supplies a historical anchor but does not prove an exact composition interval. | Ancient Mesopotamian religion |
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| Book of Documents | Composition | 11th-3rd century BCE (disputed) | Disputed Layering, excavation, and later transmission make precise date boundaries contested across the textual tradition. | Confucianism |
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| First Samuel | Composition | 10th-6th century BCE traditions and redaction (disputed) | Disputed The 1 Samuel 8-12 sequence is textually composite, so single-date assertions about its political theory should be treated as periodized claims. | Judaism |
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| Genesis | Composition | Layered composition and editing across the 1st millennium BCE | Disputed Different materials and editorial stages are dated differently. | Judaism |
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| Kaṭha Upaniṣad | Composition | Mid-to-late 1st millennium BCE | Disputed Exact date, strata, and relationship to other renunciant currents remain disputed. | Hinduism |
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| Leviticus | Composition | Composition and editing across the 1st millennium BCE | Disputed Priestly materials and the Holiness collection may reflect different periods. | Judaism |
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| Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa | Composition | Layered composition in the 1st millennium BCE | Disputed The text contains layers whose internal chronology remains debated. | Vedic religion |
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| Odyssey | Composition | Late 8th–early 7th century BCE | Approximate | Ancient Greek religion |
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| Book of Job | Composition | c. 6th–4th century BCE | Disputed The poetic dialogues, prose frame, and final form may have different histories. | Judaism |
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| Ācārāṅga Sūtra | Composition | Older strata conventionally placed in the mid-1st millennium BCE | Disputed The two books and their redaction are layered; this wide band is an orientation, not a single composition date. | Jainism |
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| Analects | Composition | 5th-3rd century BCE | Disputed Authorship and compilation phases are disputed because the text is anthologized from earlier sayings. | Confucianism |
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| Dhammapada | Composition | Early Buddhist period; collection by roughly the 3rd century BCE | Disputed Individual verses may be earlier than the anthology, and the collection date is debated. | Buddhism |
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| Great Learning | Composition | 5th-2nd century BCE (disputed) | Disputed The received text was transmitted as a Book of Rites chapter and later reorganized by Zhu Xi; the dating and extent of earlier layers remain disputed. | Confucianism |
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| Aristotle, Politics | Composition | 4th century BCE (composition and redaction history disputed) | Disputed The exact sequence of lecture notes and editorial compilation for the Politics text is not settled. | Aristotelianism |
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| Nicomachean Ethics | Composition | 4th century BCE (compilation and redaction debated) | Disputed The transmission history is debated regarding when Aristotle's lecture notes were editorially finalized. | Aristotelianism |
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| Phaedo | Composition | 4th century BCE | Disputed The dialogue is commonly assigned to Plato's middle period, but exact dating is disputed. | Platonism |
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| Plato, Republic | Composition | 4th century BCE (exact date disputed) | Disputed The dialogue is usually placed in Plato's middle period, but its exact date and whether it underwent meaningful revision remain disputed. | Platonism |
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| Letter to Menoeceus | Composition | 4th-3rd century BCE | Approximate | Epicureanism |
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| Epicurean Principal Doctrines | Composition | 4th-3rd century BCE | Approximate | Epicureanism |
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| Zhuangzi | Composition | 4th-3rd century BCE (layered transmission) | Disputed Compilation and redaction history is debated; this point reflects the best-supported conservative window. | Early Daoist philosophy |
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| Daodejing | Composition | c. 4th-2nd century BCE | Approximate Textual stratification is debated; later canonicalization is strong enough to affect received chapter order. | Early Daoist philosophy |
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| Mencius | Composition | Core teachings likely 4th–3rd century BCE with substantial later editorial layering | Disputed Scholars diverge on the dating window for specific book-level layers; modern scholarship treats the received text as a stratified tradition. | Confucianism |
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| Sūtrakṛtāṅga | Composition | Layered mid-to-late 1st-millennium BCE material | Disputed Relative strata, oral transmission, and later commentary prevent a single secure composition date. | Jainism |
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| Uttarādhyayana Sūtra | Composition | Composite late-1st-millennium BCE to early-CE anthology | Disputed Individual lectures differ in age; the band describes compilation uncertainty rather than dating every verse alike. | Jainism |
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| Bhagavad Gītā | Composition | c. 2nd century BCE–2nd century CE | Disputed The work is layered and its date and final form remain debated. | Hinduism |
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| Aṅguttara Nikāya | Attestation | Committed to writing c. 1st century BCE after oral transmission | Approximate | Buddhism |
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| Itivuttaka | Attestation | Written transmission by c. 1st century BCE | Approximate | Buddhism |
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| Majjhima Nikāya | Attestation | Committed to writing c. 1st century BCE after oral transmission | Approximate | Buddhism |
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| Saṃyutta Nikāya | Attestation | Committed to writing c. 1st century BCE after oral transmission | Approximate | Buddhism |
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| Sutta Nipāta | Attestation | Pāli Canon committed to writing c. 1st century BCE after oral transmission | Approximate | Buddhism |
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| The Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus | Composition | 1st–2nd century CE | Approximate | Ancient Greek religion |
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| First Epistle to the Corinthians | Composition | c. 53–55 CE | Approximate | Christianity |
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| Epistle to the Hebrews | Composition | c. 60–100 CE | Disputed Authorship and exact date are uncertain. | Christianity |
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| Gospel of John | Composition | c. 90–110 CE | Disputed The Gospel's composition history and final date remain debated. | Christianity |
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| Discourses of Epictetus | Composition | Early 2nd century CE | Approximate | Stoicism |
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| Encheiridion (Handbook) of Epictetus | Composition | Early 2nd century CE | Approximate | Stoicism |
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| Outlines of Pyrrhonism | Composition | 2nd–3rd century CE | Disputed The work's attribution to Sextus is stable; Sextus's lifetime and the exact order of his writings remain uncertain. | Pyrrhonism |
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| Meditations | Composition | Commonly dated to AD 170–180 as campaign-era and court-period composition; exact dating remains debated. | Disputed The conventional range is approximate; individual notes are not securely dated. | Stoicism |
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| Confessions | Composition | c. 397–400 CE | Approximate | Christianity |
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| Qur'an | Composition | c. 610–632 CE in Muslim tradition; codified in the mid-7th century | Approximate The displayed interval follows traditional revelation chronology; scholarship distinguishes revelation, collection, and codification questions. | Islam |
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| Gospel of Matthew | Composition | c. 70–100 CE (proposals vary) | Disputed The range preserves disagreement over the gospel's final composition and redaction rather than selecting one proposed year. | Christianity |
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| Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals | Publication | 1785 | Exact | Kantian ethics |
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| On Liberty | Publication | 1859 | Exact | Utilitarianism |
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| Utilitarianism | Publication | Serialized in 1861 | Exact | Utilitarianism |
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| Utilitarianism | Publication | Published in book form in 1863 | Exact | Utilitarianism |
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