5 historical documents that unfortunately got lost in time

Throughout the history of human civilization, countless documents and literary works have been produced by scholars and scholars from different eras and parts of the world. Unfortunately, however, many of these records did not survive the passage of time and were lost forever. Duncan Barile of Smithsonian Magazine listed some of the most important works that no longer exist - and you can check out 5 of them below:

1 - The Mayan Codices

Mayan Codex

(Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain 1)

Historians believe that the Mayans began creating codices (written in natural fibers) around the 9th century to document their history, culture and religion. It is estimated that thousands of them were produced; however, when European conquerors and Catholic priests arrived in the Americas in the 16th century, the vast majority were eventually destroyed - and only a few survived.

2 - The Sibylline Books

Sibylline Books

(Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain 2)

The Sibylline Books consisted of a compilation of oracular texts that Roman leaders consulted in times of crisis. Historians believe the collection was used as a reference for almost a millennium, but the originals were burned in 83 BC. Copies of these important documents were evidently created; however, to the best of their knowledge, they were destroyed by a Roman general in the 5th century during a Visigoth invasion for fear that enemies would seize and make use of the books.

3 - The Sappho Poems

Sapphire

(Wikimedia Commons / Gustav Klimt / Public Domain)

Sappho was a Greek aristocrat who in the 6th century BC wrote about 10, 000 lines of poems - which were put together in nine volumes. Her texts have made her one of the most revered lyrical poets dedicated to writing about the erotic love of antiquity; but unfortunately less than 70 lines of his poems survived the passage of millennia.

4 - The Panchatantra

Panchatantra

(Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain 3)

Panchatantra is the name of a collection of Indian fables that began to be written around the year 100 BC, in which the characters are animals. The texts were translated into some languages, such as Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew - the latter, in fact, served as the basis for a version that became overpopular in medieval Europe. However, Sanskrit originals long ago disappeared, as did the Pahlavi edition, a form of Persian language writing.

5 - The Avesta

Zarathustra

(Wikimedia Commons / Rafael Sanzio / Public Domain)

Also known as Abisteco, this document consists of the collection of the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, a religion founded in ancient Persia by the poet and prophet Zarathustra. Historians believe that the last complete manuscript of this book was destroyed in 330 BC when Alexander the Great conquered Persepolis - situated in a region that today corresponds to Iran - and only some of the original fragments were saved.