The Caveman Effect
Cavemen lived in caves, right? It's in their name after all. This is an example of sampling bias, a bias in which a sample is collected in such a way that some members of the intended population are less likely to be included than others. It's called the 'Caveman Effect.'
Most of what we know of cavemen come from cave drawings. This doesn't mean that our ancestors didn't draw and paint outside of caves, though. Drawings on anything exposed to the elements would have been weathered away, and obviously anything drawn or carved into a tree would be gone by now.
That leaves the only remaining art from that era in caves. Similarly, evidence of fire pits, middens, burial sites, etc. are most likely to remain intact to the modern era in caves. The truth is, we aren't sure exactly where all of our ancestors homed. Prehistoric people are associated with caves because that is where the data still exists, not necessarily because most of them lived in caves for most of their lives.
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