The Ancient Discovery of Astronomy Modern astronomy was a great deal for ancient people such as the Greeks and Ba alone to the Maya all discovered The ancient civilisation were as fascinated with stars and heavens as we are today. Babylon was the birthplace of the modern horoscopic astrology. The Maya developed the Mayan long count calendar arose using a base of 20. We use a base of 10. The Maya and Babaloniums studied the stars mainly as a result of astronomical desires so that they could predict favorouble times for things such as war.