Where humans not as historic 100,000+ years ago?

I've always wondered if there where great men, great battles, great triumphs of people living in ancient times. Did they not conquer lands, explore the unexplored, create great works and build marvels as we have? Or do we just not know about it because there triumphs are long forgotten to history? It's hard to me to believe that we where little more than sparsely populated groups who's only aim was to survive another day. I'm interested to hear your opinions.