I wonder if it’s possible that these were documenting something that they were losing, or had lost, as opposed to simply just a document to how they were living currently. Like a historical record of sorts.

That specific period 18000 years ago, was the middle-end of the quaternary megafauna extinction [1] and the earth was transitioning from plenty of mega fauna to none - leading to the birth of property and modernity.

[1] https://kemendo.com/Myth.pdf