Well, nothing to do except for storytelling, music, dancing, parties, games, plays, sports, eating, drinking, visiting, festivals, gossip...
People have been pretty good at keeping themselves entertained for a very long time.
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.
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
That's completely untrue. It's a total misunderstanding of what life was like.
I'm not helping your narrative, I'm saying it's a false narrative. We have so many misunderstandings about how people used to live, it's important not to perpetuate them.
That has no bearing on anything you or I said.
> Pedantry for pedantry sake is just boring
Perhaps you don't understand what pedantry is? Your entire point was a false description of what humanity was like. Just take this as a learning experience! :)
You've yet to dispute the actual point that the average person did not have a simple device that allowed them to see the future without any thought about what it took for that to happen. In order to know how much of a season was left was to look at the night sky to see what stars where visible. Not the day time sky. The only reason they knew what they knew because people very intently looked at the night sky and started to recognize the patterns. Their was no Hey Google! What is today's date? or Hey Siri, how many more moons until it's time to plant seeds?
But sure, let's focus on the irrelevant parts of whatever story you want me to tell. In fact, how about you go find a star party and volunteer your time to talk to kids and tell the story however you want. Then come back and we can all critique it to ensure you didn't leave out any irrelevant details. Maybe we should update the saying "those that can't do, teach" to add "those that can't teach, critique"