The problem here is that many things that people might saw were in ancient times and then resurrected in say the enlightenment period were still present through out the gap in between in Europe. They would however be far less prominent and so the over "feel" that most people who don't specifically study such history would have was they were somehow absent completely. Nearly all aspects of Greek and Roman culture can either be found to have a direct descendant somewhere in Europe, or to influencing to some degree an organisation or belief. This to me is the true current problem with SMA, where is the cut off. Do we just use background that was extremely common, or are the rarer and more esoteric aspects of European culture also acceptable.
I agree, that's a very difficult thing to determine. It will no doubt be a judgment call that someone, somewhere will have to make.
And this, to me, is one of the biggest problems: How will any of this be enforced? Player policing of the game simply does not work.
