As it gets colder and drier, I am experiencing more occurrences of static electricity. I am curious to read any records we have of the discovery and subsequent research into static electricity throughout the world in ancient times. A brief look into this questions shows that serious research into static electricity wasn't until about the 17th century, and that the earliest record of the discovery of static electricity might have been Thales of Miletus around 600 BCE. Is there evidence of earlier discoveries?

I'm interested to hear the earliest records we have static electricity, including independent discoveries if anyone knows. This doesn't necessarily have to be a first hand account, it could be a reference to an older discovery, in the same way even the discovery by Thales is provided to us secondhand. It also does not have to be an earlier Greek discovery, I'm just as curious to know our earliest records from anywhere.

To the extent it makes sense, I'm curious solely about static electricity rather than electricity in general. For example, I'm not really looking for any sources about electricity, such as accounts of receiving shocks from certain fish or early uses of electricity like creating batteries. Rather, I'm surprised to find so few records about something that likely occurred to most people at some point in their life. However, I would also be interested in records that are more fanciful such as ascribing static electricity to some mythological source. Thank you.