No need to apologize, HN people get off on being snarky

If a civilization was discovered with Iron Age technology before what is the currently accepted beginning of the Iron Age, wouldn't that just mean the Iron Age started earlier than previously thought?

I would argue that it needs to be more or less continuous, if we lost the technology it's a different age imo. Or at least, you can't go back globally multiple ages :) if multiple civilizations discover iron working from an otherwise similar stage of technology but aren't entirely continuous then I think it's reasonable to combine them, but if they all go back to the stone age and start from scratch I'd argue it doesn't make sense to combine them.

Also whole Iron Age as term is rather weird and location specific. In Europes there are places where it is considered to ended in 1200-1300.. Yes, during Middle Ages...

> I would argue that it needs to be more or less continuous, if we lost the technology it's a different age imo.

You're looking at history through modern eyes. Back in the past there was no collective `we`, we were much more separated as a species than we are now.

The idea that there is a global 'us' is a very, very new idea.

It would also mean that technology - and human condition - remained stagnant for half million years. If true it has [no good] implications for [the answer to] the so called Fermi Paradox.

Edited for clarity