Civilizations have been looking into the stars since the dawn of mankind, desperately trying to make sense of the minutiae and magnitude of our universe. The moon, stars, planets and sun have all played a huge part in the development of human society. But what did the ancient superpowers actually know about astronomy, and how can we see their theories in action?

A First Glimpse at the Stars

There had already been 3,000 years of ancient astronomy until the Mayas built El Caracol at Chichen Itza.

As far as ancient superpowers go, it was the ancient Mesopotamians who are largely credited with first pushing astronomical boundaries, though evidence of astronomical knowledge is arguably present in the great Egyptian pyramids of the 3rd millennium BC.

Early Mesopotamian astronomy was centred on accurately recording calendars by charting the moon’s position in the night sky. In Sumer and Babylon a year was frequently a lot less than 365 days according to the royal courts’ records – thus it was down to astronomers to tell the king to add an extra month every few years, so as not to confuse the seasons.

The development of cuneiform writing around 3500 – 3000 BC had a huge impact on astronomy, as it allowed the Mesopotamians to record their findings on tablets, which were housed in huge libraries. They also divided the sky into zones, and accurately charted the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets. For better or worse, they were also the world’s first astrologers; believing that appearances of certain bodies could foretell human fates. In fact, the twelve signs of the zodiac commonly used today still closely resemble those of the Babylonians.

Egyptian Advancements

Just a thousand miles away on the African continent, the great Egyptian civilization were also fascinated by the sky and its secrets. And as most facets of Egyptian life were centred on the Nile, so their understanding of astronomy crawled from its sapphire depths. The first Egyptian astronomers noticed that the river’s annual flooding, which left the soil rich and ready for farming, coincided with the summer solstice, which was also when the star Sirius (also known as the ‘Dog Star’) rose before the Sun. Thus these astronomers soon became able to deduce when the Nile’s flooding would occur, allowing them great power.

The Egyptian calendar was also startlingly accurate. There were twelve months, each having 30 days – followed by a five-day feasting period. Thus their year comprised 365 days, lacking only the extra day per leap year we now commonly use. This in turn meant that the seasons would undergo a complete about-turn every 1460 years, known as the Sothic Cycle.

However the Egyptians knew of their chronological errors, and kept their calendar to uphold tradition. In fact, the religious traditions of Ancient Egypt informed their astronomical beliefs, as w as the case with most early star-gazing. Even the aforementioned astronomers were principally priests. Egyptians believed that the sky was a goddess named Nut, who gave birth to the Sun each day. The Sun had three familiar names, depending on the point at which it was in its cycle: Khepri (rising); Ra (height); and Atem (setting). Similarly the Moon was named according to the shape it undertook on its own cycle.

This astronomy actually predated the Egyptian creation of hieroglyphs, and the earliest astronomical site dates back to 1998 BC. The Egyptians devoted many of their ceremonial buildings to the stars, and the pyramids for which the civilization is famed used the skies as guidance with the help of plumb lines and indicating tools. The last great Egyptian astronomical discovery came in 238 BC, when Ptolemy III suggested adding one day every four years – a process implemented by the Romans 200 years later under Julius Caesar.

In reality, by the time the Egyptians had completed most of their showcase pyramids, the world was already beginning to brim with a newfound effervescence for the stars. In Britain, Stonehenge had already implied upon its Neolithic creators a basic understanding of the Sun and Moons’ cyclical movements – likewise, amongst others, the megalithic temples of modern Malta. Since around 3000 BC the world had begun shooting upwards with the construction of buildings dedicated to astronomy. And by around 600 BC, the Ancient Greeks would have blown human understanding of the universe wide apart.

Greek Genius

Unlike their predecessors to the east, Greek thinkers asked fundamental questions about the workings of the universe and its celestial bodies. And though the Greeks did hold their system of gods and goddesses in extremely high stead, they were more preoccupied with the mathematics and science of the stars.

The first of the great Greek astronomers was Thales (ca 585 BC), who used Babylonian records to determine that eclipses recurred around every 18 years. He also charted star positions and is arguably the father of trigonometry. However he also believed the earth was flat and water-borne. Several others of these Ionian thinkers took Thales’ work further by deducing that the sky and everything in it are exhaled by the earth, and that the Moon, stars and planets (of which the Greeks had found the nearest six; the Egyptians had managed five) were bowls of fire lit by the Sun.

By the middle of the third century BC, Aristarchus had theorised the first heliocentric universe. However, earlier geocentric ‘proof’ proffered by the beloved philosopher Aristotle led the Greeks to turn their backs on Aristarchus’ groundbreaking model. Further theories were offered up, until in around 150 AD the great scholar Ptolemy produced his opus Syntaxis, in which he summarised all previous Greek astronomical beliefs. Though much of it is well wide of the mark in modern terms, the book was a standard for the discipline until Nicolas Copernicus’ work in the 16th century.

Stars the World Over

Of course, ancient astronomy wasn’t limited to Europe, Africa and the Near East. As with most areas, the ancient Chinese had plenty to say about the universe, and built many great buildings devoted to the cause. Famous astronomers such as Li Shu, Shih-shen and Li Fan chronicled every observable star meticulously, though by the zenith of Greek astronomical activity, the Chinese had merely been monitoring the skies rather than advancing any non-mythological beliefs about their workings.

Yet the Chinese gave great importance to the skies, mainly for the same worldly reasons as their Egyptian contemporaries. Chinese astronomers had to predict eclipses and announce the first days of each month to their rulers. If they got it wrong they would be killed. Thus ancient Chinese records of constellations, planets and cycles are understandably accurate – though the famous observatories of Beijing and Chang’an would not arrive for over a millennium.

Mayans and Modernity

It was the Mayan civilization who really carried the torch for the Ancient Greeks while Europe entered the Dark Ages. By 800 AD they had developed a calendar more sophisticated than ever before; they were also the first to push the idea of what we now know as the Milky Way, or as they called it the World Tree. And though their astronomy was intertwined with a turgid web of mythology and religion, they built observatories which look astonishingly like those of today to watch the stars, such as El Caracol, at Chichen Itza.

So it was the Mesopotamians and Egyptians who first began to wonder what there was to the skies beyond our own, and the Greeks who began to pull apart the myths and misunderstandings of ancient history (albeit substituting a fair amount of their own). Later years saw Mesoamerica and China rise to prominence, before the Europeans once again took the reins during the Enlightenment. Astronomy has left us with a great understanding of the universe around us, but it would have gone nowhere without its earliest innovators.