Today, and after multiple studies and various theories according to the different discoveries, we can date the age of the Earth to something more than 4,500 million years and, according to the findings in Herto (Ethiopia), the first homo sapiens appeared about 150,000 years ago but the pharaoh Psammetichus decided to find out who the first inhabitants were or, rather, which people was the first to inhabit the earth with at least an original technique.
Relief in the tomb of Psammetichus at Thebes
Psammetichus I was the founder and first pharaoh Saita (26th dynasty) who ruled Egypt between 664 and 610 BC. He gained independence from the Assyrian Empire and his people prospered during his long reign. The times of peace led the pharaoh to give it more splendor and pedigree to his town... believing that his town was the oldest in the world, he wanted to prove it empirically. To do this, he prepared an experiment that would show which was the first language and, therefore, the first people to inhabit the world.
As Herodotus tells us , he ordered to deliver two newborns to a shepherd so that he would raise them without contact with other humans and with the prohibition to speak to them. Thus, without any influence and without hearing any language, the first words that they pronounced naturally, once the stage of the first unintelligible sounds had passed, would indicate the original language and those who spoke it would be the first settlers. After two years of experiment, the shepherd asked for an audience with the pharaoh... they had said the first word about him while they extended their arms as if asking for something:
Becós, becós
Since neither the shepherd nor the pharaoh knew the meaning of that word, a committee of wise men was convened so that they could determine its meaning and to which language it belonged. After several days of meetings it was determined that the word meant bread and that it was a phrygian word . Therefore, and much to the chagrin of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians who considered themselves to be the oldest people, the Phrygians, who occupied most of the Anatolian peninsula in present-day Turkey, were determined to be the oldest people .
Sources:Tell me a story – Carlos Goñi, The Egyptians (Herodotus)