<p>The slow spread of literacy. The dark blue areas were literate at around 2300 BCE. The dark green areas were literate at around 1300 BCE. The light green areas were literate at around 300 BCE. Note that other Asian societies were literate at these times, but they are not included on this map. Note also that even in the colored regions, functional literacy was usually restricted to a handful of ruling elite.
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I, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Quadell" title="User:Quadell">User:Quadell</a>, made this map from public domain sources.
No machine-readable author provided. <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Quadell" title="User:Quadell">Quadell</a> assumed (based on copyright claims).
17 December 2005 (original upload date)
No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims).