The imagined timeframe of the Legendarium is as stated above. However, that is just that - imagined. It plays on being actual history, but the author was well aware it isn't.
"G: It seemed to me that Middle-earth was in a sense as you say this world we live in but at a different era.
T: No ... at a different stage of imagination, yes." (Tolkien interview with the BBC in 1971)
It's therefore unlikely that a bridge of complete history between the two stages imagination and reality is desirable or possible. This also explains seeming contradictions in technological or cultural advancement.
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