I have always felt that there were past ages where some level of developed civilization occurred. Probably not to the level we have now, but large tribal or village level. Unfortunately roughly every 100,000 years we have a major event that drives us into another long ice age, and civilization breaks down and disappears. I don’t know what started the last ice age about 125,000 years ago, but the eruption of Toba 74,000 ya leaving a crater 18 by 65 miles is believed to have reduced humanity to no more than 10,000 breeding males and females. Around 32,000 years ago Europe had well developed cave dwelling social groups and artists, which declined and disappeared. I noticed that there were 3 additional dips in world temperatures between 28 and 22,000 years ago. I have identified the 22K event as the eruption of what is today Mt. Sakurajima on the edge of the 12 mile diameter Aira Caldera: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aira_Caldera Others might have been Vesuvius or Icelandic.
Around 18,000 years ago the world began to warm up, but about 13,000 ya something bad happened. Firestone et al. believe that a comet or similar object struck the Northern Hemisphere, destroying the Clovis culture, forming the Carolina Bays, and killing off most of the large mammals. The additional effect was over a 1,000 years of colder weather called the Younger Dryas. This book is a fascinating read but it’s conclusions are still very controversial: https://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Cosmic-Catastrophes-Stone-Age-Changed/dp/1591430615
Sometimes science itself isn’t wrong, it is just incomplete and leading to wrong conclusions. You cannot use carbon dating for something 9 million years old. Several decades ago I had a fascinating conversation in an east coast bar with a California archaeologist. She told me about controversial finds that may be 200,000 years old in CA, that the “authorities” refuse to even consider because of the Clovis first controversy.