What came before Judaism?

Judaism came around about 1800BC From the study of historic paintings, carvings, sculptures etc it seems that humanity only tapped into monotheism recently as the historic art based upon religion showed little to no signs of monotheism. Also before Judaism there were long periods of time where a vast amount of the population would worship idols, numerous Gods or no Gods at all because of little understanding of monotheism. There were long periods of time without monotheism it seems and those living in areas where monotheism was not practised may have been doomed from birth. Even if there were messengers somewhere it seems that they came after long periods of time and only impacted small populations. What came before Judaism? Were there any messengers or prophets who taught monotheism? How long were the periods?