They were right on the way when the idea of popular astronomy (instead of only god-appointed people doing it) reached Europe, and yet they seem oblivious from it.
It's a really good reminder that even on the era of large empires, culture was still very fractally distributed.
> It's a really good reminder that even on the era of large empires, culture was still very fractally distributed.
This is a really good point. The ANE had its own idea of cosmology, Europe its, Asia its, etc. Even then, much of the biblical text contains polemics against Babylonian ideas (recall that cosmology, deity, and "function" are all tied together in their worldview).
They were right on the way when the idea of popular astronomy (instead of only god-appointed people doing it) reached Europe, and yet they seem oblivious from it.
It's a really good reminder that even on the era of large empires, culture was still very fractally distributed.