True but with technology that had not advanced beyond stone, simple metallurgy, and hand tools. Ultimately limited by whatever power could be extracted from human and animal effort. Once steam power and then electricity were discovered, civilization never looked back.
We've only had 200 or so years of widespread steam power (and closer to 100 for electricity). On an anthropological timescale, that's quite short. Egypt was ruled by pharaohs for 3,000 years.
The technology we have is bigger now, and so we're also making bigger problems.
