History & CultureMental model
Why the past seems to consist entirely of stone palaces.
What you know of an era is what survived: stone churches rather than wooden huts, letters of the literate rather than thoughts of the majority, gold rather than linen. This survivorship bias makes earlier times look grander and more educated than they were on average. The daily life of 90 percent of people left almost no trace.
Useful: Before you say 'they built things more solidly back then', ask what happened to the badly built houses.
Source: en.wikipedia.org