In 1817 in rural southern US, white men had guns and tools like shovels to dig a well near their house for fresh water. Usually they built a roof with a rope to lower someone down to dig and use a bucket with a hand crank to bring up the dirt and dump it. Lower down the bucket again until they had enough water to draw up buckets with water. I've seen this done in the 1970's at a church by members of the church one dry summer to get the well deeper. They used a little guy in the well with a rope in case of cave in. Once they got a few feet of water, they let the dirty water settle a few days before drawing water. White men had sense to dig wells for settlers near their homes or even in a fort if the settlers had to retreat to a fort in case of Indian attacks. Wells were dug for centuries by white men.
Egyptian culture was white middle eastern men. The further away from the middle east, India, or China man was, the more primitive he was, until civilization spread. However, the American Indians developed the Aztec, Maya, and Inca cultures with stone cities like early civilized man did. The sub-Saharan Africans never developed large stone cities, the wheel, but they did learn to smelt iron for weapons. Africa is a large plateau with waterfalls on the rivers near coastal areas. Thus civilized man couldn't go too far inland without dense jungles, or hostile natives attacking, malaria, and large dangerous animals. It wasn't until the 1800's that civilized men ventured inland from the coasts.
