What if Writing appears in Sumer had gone differently?

Clay tablets at Uruk record the earliest known written language.

If it had gone differently: Records, law and literature stay oral for centuries; states can't grow past what one memory holds.

1. -1050The Phoenician alphabet, Writing stays a scribal priesthood's monopoly of hundreds of signs; ordinary merchants and citizens never learn to read.
2. 105Paper is invented in Han China, The world writes on skin, silk and bark for another thousand years; the written word stays a luxury.
3. 1040Movable type in Song China, Printing stays a woodblock craft for the rare classic; no template for cheap mass text reaches anyone.
4. 1215Magna Carta, The idea that a ruler is bound by law never gets its founding document; absolutism has no early rival.