[crazygringo]

The reason I bothered to respond is that there is a common tendency to look back at historical people and see them as extremely primitive -- with little knowledge, with little entertainment, with little going on. That they would have had nothing better to do than to look at the sky.

And that's what I'm pushing back on. No, that's just not true. Obviously some people were interested in the sky, and it was a tool for certain things, but OP literally said "There was really nothing else to do." That's a complete misunderstanding of human society in history. And it's important we don't reduce our ancestors to these primitive stereotypes.

It's also important to push back on the idea that there were no distractions. OP says "no internet, no devices, no tv..." but there was extensive village gossip, games, stories... fundamentally we had all the same kind of distractions. We're a lot more similar than OP thinks.

[dylan604]

You're now assuming that I'm a bumbling idiot that thinks everyone before electricity were neanderthal cavemen. Although, I've met plenty of modern people that couldn't hold a flame to a caveman.

The fact that the ancients knew the coming of the seasons and developed their entire society based on what was visible in the heavens just shows how much they did pay attention to it.

There's a thing in story telling called hyperbole. It helps enhance the story by bending the truth just a bit to make the story more interesting and helps get a point across. It is especially useful in oral story telling.

But clearly, we're all bumbling idiots for not getting the minute details exactly right. Good to know. I'm glad you're so intelligent that you've set me straight