True, but those ancient cultures have either disappeared or stagnated. If you narrow it down to the past two or three centuries, Western societies have advanced science and technology at least by orders of magnitude. Such rapid development is singular in human history (for better or worse!).
As for non-sci/tech developments, it sometimes seems we’re actually regressing these past few decades...
You speak of the Renaissance, and then the industrial revolution, where European cultures finally caught up with these previous cultures because thought control from court and church was finally relaxed a bit.
But this speaks to how the self righteous “superior” court and church retarded innovation far longer than it should have. A backwards simple minded pause button of it’s own.
But... As of now I am personally realizing this advancement of technology and science was a mistake. It is now going to be the downfall of our brilliant intelligent civilization through tech slavery. The Amish are the smart ones, they knew and had vision of what was to come.
Opportunists have now used tech to enslave every aspect of our mind and body. There is a line to be draw or it will destroy us. Our own so called “superior intellect” will be our own self destruction. Those who embrace the simple life will be the ones to survive.
As it is right now, it looks like the homeless will be the survivors because they already don’t own anything and cannot be extorted into compromising mind, body, and liberty through lose of assets and financial position. The current “culling” jab for example.