“I must be missing a joke...surely you’re not serious? “
They never taught any of that stuff 60-70 years ago when I was in school.
You said you'd "never heard of any of that". You've never heard of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Babylon, cuneiform, Mesopotamia, Hammurabi, ziggurats, ancient Egypt, monotheism, Moses, Jesus, and the Qur'an?
Then you said, "and don’t know why anyone should!!!" Really? You don't think anyone should know anything about any of those subjects?