Somewhat incidentally, I was watching a Wisecrack episode on the philosophy of Tolkien which seemed to imply that his middle-earth universe was meant to be read

Somewhat incidentally, I was watching a Wisecrack episode on the philosophy of Tolkien which seemed to imply that his middle-earth universe was meant to be read as preceding our own history [0]. Following in that vein, I wonder what a high fantasy story that used prehistoric motifs would be like. Not a sci-fi story, actual fantasy. Instead of a high fantasy with elves and hobbits, maybe one with neanderthals and cro-magnons, but show them as having advanced, competing civilizations to homo sapiens. Maybe instead of increasing technical progress, we see primitive technologies evolve into living things like plants and animals. "Every sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from nature" as someone once wrote. Idk, I guess this doesn't add to the discussion, but it's stimulating to say the least. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-sTbaH-aA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-sTbaH-aA0