It will focus on the ancient civilization of the Sumerians and their incredible knowledge of astronomy. In my opinion, they possessed knowledge that far exceeded their possible level of development.
Currently, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of Sumerian tablets describing many astronomical phenomena and objects.
However, in addition to simple descriptions, they also contain complex calculations of the trajectories of most of the planets of the solar system. Now I will tell you which question has managed to greatly puzzle and intrigue me.
Where did the Sumerians learn about the existence of planets and, in general, were able to understand or come up with the essence of this definition?
Imagine if you suddenly find yourself 6,000 years ago without a hint of modern technology. Of course, you will still have modern knowledge, but you probably cannot confirm it experimentally.
But the point is, the Sumerians did not have modern knowledge. During the day, they saw a large disc of fire in the sky, and at night the moon and many small luminous points appeared. If through long experiments and mental efforts they could figure out some basic things about the Sun and the Moon, then they could not understand the essence of other planets without optics.
That's how they could know that Saturn is a planet, clearly understand this definition, and even calculate the trajectory. This is simply impossible, because they saw only small bright points in the sky.
It's like looking remotely at an LED grid, but not knowing what it is. But the Sumerians clearly knew and understood !!! So I just can't figure out how this is possible ?!
Promotional video:
Considering all their capabilities and inventions, it can be assumed that they invented strong optics back then, but there is no evidence to support this assumption. There is not even a mention of their existence in the tablets, as well as material archaeological finds.
So they did not have optics, but they did have knowledge.
I can only assume that the Sumerians might have had scraps of knowledge from some more ancient and highly developed civilization. I can no longer offer less fantastic options here, because I simply do not see how the existing facts can be otherwise explained.
After the Sumerians, for many thousands of years, people could not understand what form the Earth actually had, and they not only knew about the Earth, but also about the other planets. All this reminds one of a fantastic film, only filmed not according to the script, but which happened recently on Earth.
I forgot to add that you can rest assured of the knowledge of the Sumerians, for we still use many of their (or not their) discoveries, only slightly supplementing them.
When I started digging this topic, I realized that the further we go into the depths of time, the more questions arise. And also information has to be collected literally bit by bit, because official scientists do not like to focus on such interesting moments.
Everything is simple for them, well, they calculated the trajectories of the planets and so what?
But how they did it, almost nobody cares.