sometimes I feel like they had a much deeper awareness of the world around them.

I suppose that depends on whom you're speaking of when you say 'they'.
'They' = every day people who had to work on the fields?
'They' = priests and astronomers and the like?

Astronomical occurrences were linked to myths and imaginations of gods, I think.
Thus, the change from days getting longer to days getting shorter was something powerful, I imagine.
And to find a point in they sky (near a particular star) around which all stars seem to be circling must have been a great discovery.
Yet - the common people were not involved in these things, as far as I know...

We think we’re so advanced today

In this regard, we ARE.
;-)