WI Lost Historical sources

An interesting idea I had was What if we lost a certain historical source such as the writings of a ancient writer or a artifact is undiscovered/destroyed and how would that effect our perception of history . Assuming butterfly net to keep our history the same except until relatively recent when historians have less to work with on a certain time or culture.
 
Through histoy we have lost much of history, when writings and artefacts have lost. And this is still happening speciality in Syria.

Or do you mean that humankind would lost something which we know already today?
 
Through histoy we have lost much of history, when writings and artefacts have lost. And this is still happening speciality in Syria.

Or do you mean that humankind would lost something which we know already today?

I think he means something like: What if we lost Procopius or Herodotus. No surviving copies make it to the modern world.
 
I guess an obvious one would be that the Rosetta Stone isn't discovered during Napoleon's occupation of Egypt and is either destroyed in a later conflict or remains undiscovered. How would that affect the efforts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics ?


Cheers,
Nigel.
 
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