But you last sentence is misleading. History shows the exact opposite of your claim of happy, joyful people.
p.s. Religion IS Superstition.
The history I have been reading shows that they have very few wars. Loved music and entertainment. Food was a big item. Being a chef was a good career. One temple for example received over 5M flower bouquets in one month. Which show the people had the time to grow beautiful flowers. People don’t grow flowers unless they have grown all the food they can use first. The women had time to wear beautiful cloths and use makeup. They wore beautiful jewelry. They had their hair done in fashion. They love their pets to the point of mummifying dogs and cats. From what history is showing us. They had the best medical practices at the time.
Where they had problems were in the area of alcoholism. A side effect of plenty of beer and wine.
Note, you have to read the new history out about Egypt. The old theories are not holding water.
You'd better read some real history and anthropology if you have such a view of humanity.
As one example of many, a large proportion of the ancient population were slaves, including in Egypt. Grinding poverty has always been a factor in most societies. How about looking at the real world for a change. Your view is complete fantasy. You will never get a realistic view if you see only the people who were comparatively well off.
You also don't consoder the Black Death, or any of the history of devastating disease and poverty the world over.
Take off the blinders and rose-colored glasses. They are skewing your view. You are living in a fairytale.
Yes, I have read about slaves. And I think Americans confuse slaves of the ancient world with the slave trade in early America. For example, a slave in Egypt might work a second job to be able to afford to be a slave at a temple. They would have to pay to be a slave. Not quite the American system.
Now you might ask why they would do this. The reasons are, the temples were the big entertainment centers. Great music, great food. And the temples were known for good health care benefits.
We grew up being told the pyramids were built by slaves. To this day, there is no proof. And they are coming out with other views now of the labor market back then.
From what I have read is that the biggest changes in labor laws happen in 1700 B.C. with the arrival of the Hyksos.
As far as slaves in Babylon, all you have to do is read the laws of the time. They pretty much spelled out how you had to take care of slaves, what their medical costs were. Inheritance laws for slaves and so on.
Another problem of understanding is the ownership system. For example. The first born male belonged to the Pharaoh. When you look at the system, it was not a slave system, it was a tax system.
When you look at the Indus Civilization of the Harappans, they had houses hooked to sewer systems with bathrooms and kitchens. They did not have electricity, but they built their swimming pools so the breeze over the water would cool the house.
There were good times to live at in the past. Times when people got along and there were no wars. And I am sure there were many bad times with plagues and wars as history shows. In reading the old Genesis stories there were natural disasters and population explosions that were reduced by plagues. But I was very surprised they never mentioned any wars.