Who is to say that mankind in one form or another hasn't been here, got destroyed or destroyed most of itself and started again? I recall reading about a miner who had opened a new ore vein and found a fossilized cooking vessel. It was down deep in the ground. It made me wonder if mankind hasn't been here a lot longer than we thought, and maybe we have resets to where there are few left and these folks that survive start populating the world again.

Most ancient cultures have a flood story. Maybe that was the last reset?