The ancient physician Galen worked out the composition of his famous theriac (a complex antidote/cure-all) through a process of empirical testing that, while not modern experimentation, was more systematic than pure tradition.
Ancient concepts of childhood are genuinely different from modern ones. The lack of a concept of 'adolescence' as a distinct developmental stage, the high infant mortality that shaped emotional investment in young children, and the legal categories of different life stages all reflect different assumptions.
The Ajanta cave paintings, executed over roughly eight centuries from the 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD, are the most important surviving corpus of ancient Indian painting and show a sophistication of technique comparable to anything in the contemporary Mediterranean world.
The argument about practical effects is correct but misses the collaboration element — it's not just effects.