More accurately, western Europe went thru this collapse and rebirth.
Chinese and Indian civilizations, among others, were unaffected, although they had their own problems.
The classical world also had some truly amazing blind spots from our perspective. There was very little actual technological advancement (except in architecture) from 300 BC to 300 AD, roughly when the slide started.
In fact, you can make a very good case that art and literature went downhill dramatically over this period.
A major reason for this stagnation is likely the ancient world's dependence on slavery and the resultant isolation of educated men from the world of "stuff." Gentlemen and scholars just didn't muck around with glassware and bits of string, or they lost caste. This made the development of anything like true science impossible.
The authoritarian and increasingly totalitarian Roman state was also highly suspicious of anything that might lead to change. Ironic, sincee the development of true science might have allowed their civilization to survive by providing better weapons.
Great post!
I think we’ve already lost considerable continuity, too.
As recently as 50 years ago (or even less?), we had the serial family under one roof.
Mom and Dad had kids, the sons brought their wives home and either lived under the same roof or built a house on the same property as Mom and Dad. The daughters went to live in their husbands’ serial homes.
You had a knowledgebase onsite in the elders and cross-pollination too. The daughters both took skills with them and shared skills back to the birth family.
Now, both my mother and FrogDad’s have said that they “don’t want to be a burden on their children” and refuse to move in with anyone. So I can’t datamine either of them in any meaningful way for canning info, quilting info, wives remedies, family history, etc. All that will be lost soon.
Where/when did the burden thing happen? I’d have loved to be able to go for a walk alone with my husband and had a grandmother or two in the house to watch the children.