Early Astronomy
As surviving records and artifacts make abundantly clear, many early cultures took a keen interest in the changing nighttime sky. But unlike today, the major driving force behind the development of astronomy in those early societies was probably neither scientific nor religious. Instead, it was decidedly practical. Seafarers needed to navigate their vessels, and farmers had to know when to plant their crops. In a real sense, then. human survival depended on knowledge of the heavens. The ability to predict the arrival of the seasons, as well as other astronomical events, was undoubtedly a highly prized, perhaps jealously guarded, skill.
The human brain’s ability to perceive patterns in the stars led to the “invention” of constellations as convenient means of labeling regions of the nighttime sky. The realization that these patterns returned to the night sky at the same time each year met the need for a practical means of tracking the seasons. Widely separated cultures all over the world built elaborate structures to serve, at least in part, as primitive calendars, but often early experts on astronomy enshrined their knowledge in myth and ritual, sometimes turning sites used for astronomical observation into places for religious ceremonies.
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