Quote Originally Posted by JimOttley View Post
The human race in modern terms has been around for some 50,000 odd years, recorded history is around 6000 years or so
I think you'll find that under the term 'modern' it is accepted in the scientific world we have been around for 200,000 years.

As for recorded history, cave paintings are a form of recorded history, and the oldest one dates back over 30,000 years. A nice article on that in New Scientist recently.