I mean, you take one look at Greek statues and Roman busts and you realize that people figured how to aim for realism, at least when it came to the human body and faces, over 2000 years ago.
Yet, unlike sculpture, paintings and drawings remained, uh, “immature” for centuries afterwards (to my limited knowledge, it was the Italian Renaissance that started making realistic paintings). Why?
Humans had culture and art during all times, regardless if you understand it or not.
I agree. I’m not trying to say no one made art in 10000 bc. I’m just saying the opportunities became more abundant for people to focus most of their time in life on it in more recent times.