Our Short-Sighted View of History

For most of recorded (written) history our view of creation and the history of the earth was based on the bible so everything started about 6,00 years ago. Earlier civilizations like the Mayans, Egyptians and Sumerians new better. So did the Norse, Greek & Romans. As the scientific method developed, we discovered that the Universe, our galaxy, our solar system and the earth were billions of years old. However, our view of “civilization” was still focused on nothing before Egypt, Babylonia and the Mayans (4 – 5,000 years ago). As archeology expanded, we discovered that there were civilizations that flourished as early as 12,000 years ago and possibly earlier. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey is a great example and there many others. It took a civilized society to construct what has been found there but what happened to them? The issue is that only evidence that survives the ravages of time is found in stone. Regardless of how advanced a society is technologically everything they developed, regardless of how advanced, will completely disappear in a few thousand years (except what is left in stone) after that civilization ceases.

An earlier posting revealed that there were gold mining operations on Southern Africa 180 to 200,000 years ago. It is difficult for me to not believe that some sort of “civilization” was involved. https://historum.com/t/200-000-year-old-metropolis-found-in-africa.29144/

What happened to them? Why did they not survive? How many other civilizations (some possibly more advanced than currently) have risen and fallen?