Writing
The invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the beginning of the Bronze Age of the late 4th millennium BC. The Sumerian archaic cuneiform script and the Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400 to 3200 BC with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BC. It is generally agreed that Sumerian writing was an independent invention; however, it is debated whether Egyptian writing was developed completely independently of Sumerian, or was a case of cultural diffusion.
Indian copper plate inscriptions
The so-called Sohgaura copper-plate inscription, inscribed in the Brahmi script, and possibly from the 3rd century BCE Maurya Empire, is a precursor to the later copper-plate inscriptions. However, it is actually written on a small plaque of bronze (a copper alloy). The Taxila and the Kalawan copper-plate inscriptions (c. 1st century CE or earlier) are among the earliest known instances of copper plates being used for writing in the Indian subcontinent. However, these are not proper charters, unlike the later copper-plate inscriptions.