“They knew of India, but not much further east, and of Egypt and not much further west, and Ethiopia and Sudan and not much further south.............”
The old testament script that knew that which Middle East people knew, but nothing distinct beyond a certain radius - not most of Asia, not most of Europe north of the Mediterranean, not most of Africa south of “north Africa” (on or connected to the north Africa lands along the Mediterranean or the Red Sea), nothing of the Americas, nothing of the arctic circle. Yet in all those places there were and hand been human civilizations.
People didn’t travel much in those days and those that did, usually merchants, sometimes didn’t come back, having fallen prey to thieves, and highway men or warrior tribes.
And when they did come back, they told tales of far away place that many discounted as fantasy.
I remember reading a story of sailors that had travelled to India and came back and told of WOOL that grew on TREES. Europeans didn’t believe such tall tales.
Of course the sailors were talking about cotton plants..............