Our society hasn’t come to an end yet — when the Roman Empire had its ups and downs (it went in some form from 6th or 7th c BC until the mid-15th century, the fall of Constantinope, iow 2000 years) it had continual change of technology in different areas, including its military (which was a dominant force in the culture) and borrowed the best ideas from conquered peoples. The Egyptians had the 1st and 2nd intermediate periods, which saw the end of preceding periods and a chaotic transition; the Old Kingdom built big (I’d argue in favor of the geopolymerization idea) with very hard stone (ditto); the Middle Kingdom built with mud brick, including its pyramids (that was the period during which the Israelites were held in bondage); the New Kingdom again built a lot, but with softer stone, despite having much better tools.
Fascinating read. Thanks. I didn’t follow all of it but most. wow. How do you know so much about this topic?
really good summary. I didn’t know about the geopolymerization idea — why do you think the transition from the Old to Middle to New Kingdoms in terms of architecture happened?