[Coyoteman]

We're talking a disaster that reduced the human population to a bare minimum.

And I' asking who would be alive to remember such an event, and how would they know it wasn't local?

I doubt tribal memory would extend that far.

For many events five generations would be about it. For truly memorable events with relatively large populations I suspect a few thousand years would be about the limit.

[King Prout]

one thing, though
memory becomes legend becomes mythology
at each step more removed from the facts, but still carrying a grain
and, remember - from our perspective, these people lived DULL lives.
what do folks in similarly monotonous settings do now?
jaw, endlessly, about hoary memories, legends, and myths.