We know that the Tigris and Euphrates were the cradle of civilisation, but we only have very sparse records of the people who lived there - Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians etc. And we know that rivers in Europe, like the Danube and Rhine would have been vitally important to tribal cultures there. But again, no recorded history. There is recorded history in China, but most of the historians who have framed what we know of world history were Eurocentric, and considered Egypt and the Mediterranean cultures a vital part of that.