when did the first anatomically modern humans first appear
Anatomically modern human Homo sapiens evolved from "archaic" or "robust" predecessors (Homo heidelbergensis, or a related offshoot from Homo erectus) around 315,000 years ago. The divergence of modern human populations dates to shortly after this time, the oldest division being that of the hunter-gatherer populations of Southern Africa, although there have been numerous events of admixture both among modern populations and between modern and archaic ones.
Prehistory Prehistory is the period of human activity between the use of the first stone tools c. 3.3 million years ago and the invention of writing systems, the earliest of which appeared c. 5,300 years ago.