I am sure this has been discussed before, but every prehistory or neolithic or even bronze age folks have ochre at their center.
This may be an artifact of what is available, graves etc. But for example the kurgans were thick with ochre. And by no means unique.
So what is the deal?
It's an iron oxide pigment, and iron oxide pigments are very commonly found in nature, ready to use. If you can find a way to grind them up- rubbing two flat rocks together, say- you can (depending on the deposit) get a decent red, yellow, or orange. So it is not surprising that they'd be used in cave paintings, used for rubbing corpses up to make them look more alive. In the Renaissance Cennini talks about them. Some of the better stuff comes from Rousillon, in southern France. Interesting that some of the more famous cave paintings are in southern France as well.
It's just a good, common pigment. If you wanted something to look good, colour it with ochre.
Ochre would have been your primary creativity tool. We have hundreds of other pigments available now, but we still use ochres, it's that good.
Wouldn't this technically be prehistory?