how do we know there weren’t advanced human civilisations 50,000+ years ago?

Question

Recorded history only goes back around 5,000 years, but humans have been around for 200,000 years. Could there have been highly sophisticated ancient societies of which no trace remains?

In: 16

Answer 1

While theoretically possible, given an absence of evidence, we can only go with what we can prove. The idea of a civilization of early humans who left absolutely 0 trace or evidence behind seems unlikely, and we have no proof or evidence supporting such a theory.