Years ago I read Herodotus' Histories and it left a big impression on me. I believe it mostly takes place around 2kBc but you realize that psychologically the people are pretty much the same as modern people. That's not to say they act the same because the cultural norms are different but at the end of the day basically all the actions they take are relatable from some perspective.
And this got me thinking how far back this applies, and my personal guess is pretty far, maybe even 100k years. When I hear stories like this, I like to imagine that they were basically modern humans, doing all the same stuff we do today, just under very different sets of norms.
This is one of those things that is kind of weird until it's totally obvious and you feel dumb for having thought any other way. It was almost revelatory for me when I realised that ancient people were just people from a long time ago. It sounds obvious, of course, but for some reason (and I imagine I'm not alone in having this experience) I feel like I spent a lot of my life thinking of ancient peoples as being somewhere between "us" and (what one generalises to) neanderthals. It was startling to read stories and realise that these humans were, in fact, humans just like anyone today, living in a different culture.
And this got me thinking how far back this applies, and my personal guess is pretty far, maybe even 100k years. When I hear stories like this, I like to imagine that they were basically modern humans, doing all the same stuff we do today, just under very different sets of norms.