From what I understand ancient civilizations rarely kept records of things that could be easily transmitted by speech. It seems to me that most practical skills

From what I understand ancient civilizations rarely kept records of things that could be easily transmitted by speech. It seems to me that most practical skills are better taught this way anyway. They didn’t have manuals and grimoires of building techniques, flora and fauna. Most of the texts were either religious or for bookkeeping. This was true of Egypt as well. Almost everything on display today is about death rites. Of course it might be that these records were just fewer and eventually lost.