When did the history of humans begin?

The novel cites that the history of humans began 50,000 years ago. 

Human history took off around 50 000 years ago. The earliest definite signs of the Great Leap Forward come from East African sites with standardised stone tools and the first preserved jewelry. Similar developments soon appear in the Near East and in southeasten Europe, then (some 40 000 years ago) in southwestern Europe, where abundant artifatcs are associated with fully modern skeletons of people termed Cro-Magnons.