Durable information storage. Mass distribution of information. Universal literacy. Too little of what was written in antiquity was accessible to the vast ma

Durable information storage. Mass distribution of information. Universal literacy. Too little of what was written in antiquity was accessible to the vast majority of people, and too much of it was lost. We're left with fragments of early mathematical, literary, and historical works and our attempts to figure out what ordinary people were up to are almost stuck with just graffiti on the few hard surfaces that have survived.