There’s good evidence against that. All the easily mineable resources that a civilization needs to build more advanced technology will be used up by the first civilization. I’ve heard it said that if we destroy our current technology there will be no way to rebuild it because there’s no way to mine the resources to build it back up.
Yes, I've read that without easily accessible surface level coal, there is no industrial revolution. Maybe the advanced past civilizations were based in what is now called Africa or Indonesia, and the UK was some remote frozen place where it wasn't worth it to mine the surface coal?
