There was a tundra ecosystem in Antarctica until around 12 million years ago, when it got covered in ice and became too cold to support most life. The only two flowering plants known to still survive in Antarctica are Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthis quitensis.

Interestingly, Antarctica wasn't always at the south pole. It once had a tropical, then later a temperate climate, so there are likely some very interesting animal fossils hiding beneath the ice (assuming they weren't destroyed by repeated freeze-thaw cycles).

There are a few plants in the Antarctic Peninsula, yes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica#Biodiversity

But as far as we know, there was never a long-lasting human presence on Antarctica until industrial times. There still has never been an economically self-supporting settlement on the Antarctic mainland, only bases reliant on continue funding to operate.

The world's climate was a bit warmer in the last interglacial about 115,000 years ago, but there's no evidence for humans doing any long ocean voyages back then. Sailing long distances over the open ocean is difficult and the pattern of human migration was to spread over the continents. Most of the Pacific islands, with much more favourable climate than Antarctica, were only settled by humans within the last 2000 years.

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