Messier 26: 4900 Light Years
This is still a fairly local open cluster, a near-neighbor in our own galaxy, but when you see M26 you're looking at 2900 BCE, the age of the first dynasty of the Pharaohs. The pyramids had not yet been built. Stone axes were still being used, but this year marks the beginning of the bronze age. The very first version of the city of Troy was built during this period (the city sacked in Homer's Iliad was Troy VII). In the Aegean this period marks the transition from the Neolithic to the early Minoan period; the invention of writing was big news in Sumeria.
Try the "Write like a Babylonian" page.