Also, not to mention that constellations are a human made construct. It is like how day night cycles are natural, and have existed before us, but calling every seventh cycle “monday” is not.
The stars and their appearance on the sky is natural like the day-night cycles, while how they are grouped together and what they are called is human made. (And different civilisations had wildly differing opinions on how this should be done.)
No matter how one would choose to group stars in the sky, the point is that their relative angular closeness varies faster than that of continents on our planet.
I wonder when we started telling stories about them though. There’s not much to do once the sun sets, prior to the invention of the oil lamp.
Unfortunately Orion is still older than most hominids. I can imagine a new constellation triggering the “need” for new stories, but only after language developed.
And while I strongly believe we will continue to push back the beginnings of Man, and of civilization, we are probably past the inflection point. I suspect we aren’t likely to quadruple the origin dates for our species. Which is what you’d need to have a plausible story about oral traditions affected by Orion sprouting a new star.
> Wouldn’t Saturday be the seventh cycle, given it is the end of the week?
Every 7th cycle would be the start of the week; the 6th cycle would be the end. (Think, for example, if you had a 2-day week; the 1st cycle would take you to the 2nd day.) But when the week starts is not universally agreed—I believe USians usually start it on Sunday, and Europeans usually start it on Monday.
The stars and their appearance on the sky is natural like the day-night cycles, while how they are grouped together and what they are called is human made. (And different civilisations had wildly differing opinions on how this should be done.)