How did ancient people know so much about the earth, other planets, stars?

Question

they had no telescopes... nothing.

Mayans, egyptians, ect .....

Answer 1

As some people have said, they did not have "distractions" such as TV to keep them away... However consider this.... they did not have light at NIGHT or pollution to cover the sky. The view of the stars must have been overwhelming! During the hurricanes of the past years (i am in florida) there was no electricity for days... and the sky was lit up! BY STARS and planets It was amazing! I had always wanted to see that way! The light really HIDES the stars!~ So these ancient people must have just been facinated on the wonders of it. They noticed the patterns, the changes .... how wonderful!

Answer 2

They didn't really know all that much about the stars and planets.

The other "planets" as we know them were called "wanderers" back then. They didn't know that these were planets like Earth, they just knew that they were objects in the sky that moved more than the stars. They knew them by name because of each planet's distinct position and pattern of movement.

The stars, on the other hand, are fairly constant, they had constellations and such that they made up: Orion, Leo, Virgo,etc.

As for Earth... well, we know now that much of their ideas were incorrect... the earth goes around the sun, not the other way around, for example.

Here's something you can do...

On a day that you have free, go outside with a notebook and forget any scientific information you know... all of it. Then, look around at your surroundings, look at water, think of rain, the clouds, where the sky meets the earth, how the sun moves; then do the same at night. While you're observing, write down your ideas on how those things work, again, without using knowledge you've learned. It's a rather fun exercise that's both creative and educational.

Answer 3

Evolution considers ancient a millions of years . so how ancient is ancient. Columbus considered the planet to be non flat. while other thought of it as flat and that was only about 700 years ago.
It is only in modern times with telescopes that we determined that there exists more than 2000 stars. and that there are no less than 13 trillion Galaxies in the Universe each containing an undeterminte number of stars.

Answer 4

The planets, stars and other celestial bodies had been observed for hundreds of years before even these cultures came along---even worshipped by thousands of various tribes and societies for some thousands of years---And---there were no diversions from the ongoing attention paid to these things -- Those who studied and knew the "inside" stuff on these matters were "paid" quite well and so the numbers of people interested in and studying up on these things was considerable

Answer 5

Keeping track of the stars was important in determining when to plant crops so it was a matter of life or death.
Also they notice that some stars move around in the night sky.
Planet has the root word from wandering stars.

Plus they didn't have TV and spend a lot of time studying the stars at night.

Answer 6

Didn't have TV's, Radios or lights either. with a dearth of entertainment options and no light pollution, there wasn't much else for the middle aged to do but stare at the sky.

Answer 7

sheer observation