[WalterBright]

> you're underselling the accomplishment of determining some of these things, particularly predicting eclipses

If you keep records over the decades, you can predict it. It's just a pattern, not an understanding. It wasn't until the last century, however, that the application of math to the precise orbits was able to predict the track of an eclipse very accurately.

[HelloMcFly]

> If you keep records over the decades, you can predict it.

Of course we know that now, but that level of understanding is hardly trivial to societies at those levels of development. To use our current understanding to be so underwhelmed - and to not be at all impressed by the scale at which they applied it for transforming and modernizing aspects of their growing societies - I don't know man, it honestly kind of shocks me and bums me out in equal measure.

[WalterBright]

When I was a boy, I had a newspaper route. It required me to deliver the newspapers at around 5AM, when it was still dark. While biking around the neighborhood throwing newspapers at houses, I would also watch the night sky.

It wasn't long before I started noticing patterns.

Ancient people also lived largely outside. They'd see the patterns, too. This isn't amazing or sophisticated or incredible.