Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first civilizations began around 4000 BCE in the fertile crescent of West Asia. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia stopped wandering and planted cereal crops in the mud of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This shift marked the transition from the Neolithic Revolution to the Urban Revolution.
The first writing systems in Sumer were invented to keep accounts rather than to tell stories or compose poetry. Traders and bureaucrats needed a way to track the flow of grain, the number of sheep, and the debts owed by the rural population. The invention of cuneiform was a bureaucratic necessity for the state to maintain control over a growing economy.
The Roman Empire collapsed because of the very complexity that made it great. As the empire expanded, the cost of maintaining its borders and bureaucracy grew exponentially, leading to a fiscal crisis. The state became a parasite feeding on its own people until it could no longer sustain itself.
The Inca civilization of the Andes did not use writing at all. Instead, they developed the Quipus, a complex recording system consisting of knotted strings of different lengths and colors. This system allowed them to function as a civilized society and manage a vast empire without a single written word.
The great pyramids of Egypt began in the 3rd millennium BCE. The construction of these structures relied on the systematic oppression of the majority and the use of shackled human muscle to plant crops and build cities.
The Kardashev scale classifies civilizations based on their level of technological advancement. It is specifically measured by the amount of energy a civilization is able to harness. This scale makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist.