Since you're big time into the Proto Indo European myths, is there anything you know in ancient myth that could be used to imply an ancient civilization with technology on par with or exceeding ours that was subsequently lost? In a story or game, not in a tinfoil hat.
No, but there is evidence of advancement beyond what we believed possible.
Göbekli Tepe is a revolutionary 11'500–12'000 year old Neolithic archaeological site in southeastern Turkey.
Dated between 9500-8000 BC, the site challenges the traditional view that agriculture was necessary to build monumental, complex structures, and
Archaeologists have found thousands of grinding stones and mortars at the site, which were used to process large amounts of wild cereals like einkorn, rye, and barley.
Many researchers argued that the need to feed large numbers of people gathered for rituals at Göbekli Tepe may have actually driven the invention of agriculture, as the practice emerged in 9000 BC in Anatolia.
That's not saying it didn't emerge elsewhere earlier, it's just saying that agriculture emerged independently in many areas, and here it may have been spurred on by this site.
Genetic research has also traced the world’s oldest domesticated wheat strains to Karacadağ, a mountain just 32 km away, which reached its peak around the same time Göbekli Tepe was active.
While the oldest layers show no farming, later, smaller structures show a gradual shift as nearby communities began to domesticate plants and animals.
Göbekli Tepe is unique too, as it survived the post Ice Age flooding due to being situated on a mountain, and it is possible other, older, megalithic sites could have been destroyed, or submerged after the end of the last Ice Age, as we see with Doggerland.
This is due to the fact humans settle near coastlines for resources, megalithic structures built on these ancient shores would now be hundreds of feet underwater, and buried under layers of silt, and sediment.
Mile thick ice sheets could have also ground these sites to dust, as they did to solid bedrock, likely obliterating any surface structures in their path.
Proto Indo-European myths do not generally contain "memories" of a lost civilization, they focus on the very foundations of social and cosmic order for a nomadic, pastoralist society that likely lived around 4000–3500 BC.
However, these myths do hint at ancient ways of life in three distinct ways.
PIE culture myths describe gods teaching humans the essential technologies of their time, these include fire making/smithing, sacred laws, and agriculture.
Many PIE myths involve a hero battling a multi-headed serpent or giant that has stolen cattle, some scholars interpret these monsters as symbolic representations of non-Indo-European peoples.
For example, the Vedic serpent Vṛtrá is described as an aboriginal enemy of the invading Indo-Aryan tribes, the Andronovo, and Yamnaya encountering the Dravidian tribes.
In fact, it is theorized that after the Andronovo, and Yamnaya conquered the Dravidians, they instilled a reverence in them regarding the cows they brought with them to India, as a way to prevent the Dravidian tribes from stealing them.
Indo-Aryans viewed cattle primarily as wealth and their source of food, while they deeply respected cows, they were not "untouchable" deities.
In the Rigveda, the cow is increasingly referred to as Aghnya, "that which should not be killed."
Initially, this wasn't about holiness in a modern sense, it was about economic protection, by labeling the most stolen and valuable asset "un-killable," they had created a spiritual barrier that worked when physical guards weren't present.
Early Indo-Aryan history is defined by Gaviṣṭi, war for cows.
As these tribes became kings and landowners, they had to flip the script, they went from being the raiders to needing to stop the raids.
Rebranding cows as mother figures was the ultimate "security system," it turned a piece of property into a family member, making theft socially unthinkable.
While the philosophy of the sacred cow involved deep ideas about non-violence, the trigger for its widespread adoption was almost certainly the practical necessity of protecting the backbone of the ancient economy.
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