A jawbone from Misliya Cave in Israel was dated to about 177,000 to 194,000 years old. It shows Homo sapiens ventured out of Africa long before the great dispersal of around 60,000 years ago. Those pioneers left little trace: humanity had several false starts before the exodus that stuck.
Around 2300 BCE, Enheduanna, daughter of King Sargon of Akkad, became high priestess of the Moon god at Ur. She composed hymns to the goddess Inanna and put her name to them. She is the oldest person identified as the author of a literary work, about 1,500 years before Homer.
Squeeze Earth's 4.5 billion years into a single 24-hour day. Homo sapiens shows up around 11:59:54 p.m., roughly six seconds before midnight. All of written history, from Sumerian tablets to today, fits into the final tenth of a second. A cosmic blink.