I want to know the answer to the following question:
Over approximately what expanse of time can textual criticism be applied to written works?
All the background I'm provided with is that "The principles of textual criticism, although originally developed and refined for works of antiquity, the Bible, and Shakespeare, have been applied to many works, extending backwards from the present to the earliest known written documents, in Mesopotamia and Egypt—a period of about five millennia.". Is that enough to answer the question?
Answer: yes