Is the grammar in the following sentence ok?

For, surely, the paintings were created by people who were not so different than myself.

It sounds like the second half of a compound sentence. "For" is one of the coordinating conjunctions, which are primarily used to join independent clauses to form compound sentences.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/conjunctions.htm#top

In addition, the word "myself" is used incorrectly. That is a reflexive pronoun and should be used when the subject is "I" or to emphasize the first person singular --
** I see myself in the mirror.
** I myself gave him the award.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/pronouns1.htm#reflexive

Here's how I would rewrite your sentence:

Surely the paintings were created by people who were not so different from me.

how about this?

I dream of discovering societies and understanding them through the remnants that people not so different than myself left behind.

I dream of discovering societies and understanding them through the remnants left behind by people not so different from me.

thank you!

You're very welcome!

Yes, the grammar in the sentence you provided is correct.

To verify the grammar of a sentence, you can follow these steps:

1. Identify the subject and the verb in the sentence: In this case, the subject is "paintings" and the verb is "were created."

2. Analyze the structure of the sentence: The sentence is structured as follows: "For, surely, the paintings were created by people who were not so different than myself."

- "For, surely" is an introductory phrase that provides additional emphasis or certainty.
- "The paintings" is the subject of the sentence, referring to a specific set of paintings.
- "were created" is the verb phrase that indicates the action performed by the subject.
- "by people" is a prepositional phrase that explains who performed the action of creating.
- "who" is a relative pronoun that connects the phrase to the subject "people."
- "were not so different than myself" is a clause modifying "people" and referring to the speaker's similarity to the creators of the paintings.

3. Check for subject-verb agreement: In this case, the subject "paintings" is plural, and the verb "were created" matches in the plural form.

4. Examine the use of other grammatical elements: There are no obvious issues with the use of other grammatical elements in the sentence. "For" and "surely" are used as introductory words or interjections and don't affect the basic structure of the sentence.

In summary, the grammar in the sentence "For, surely, the paintings were created by people who were not so different than myself" is correct.