Sure. Plenty of people thought of it earlier. Just not in the West. In China, they used wooden movable type as early as 1040 CE. Shortly thereafter, they develo

Sure. Plenty of people thought of it earlier. Just not in the West. In China, they used wooden movable type as early as 1040 CE. Shortly thereafter, they developed ceramic movable type. In 1234, Korea developed metal type through a variant on sand casting. Gutenberg's breakthrough was his method for making metal type. That's why I gave tips for that transition. But even without it, you can use wooden type to start a society on the road to literacy.