Eli5: how did early civilizations know what was north and what was south

Question

Eli5: how did early civilizations know what was north and what was south

In: Biology

Answer 1

The origin of the word “east” is the ancient Greek “auōs” for “dawn”. “West” comes from “vesper” for “evening”.

“North” comes from the Proto-Indo-European unit “ner-” which means “left”.

So for the typical person who isn’t watching the stars, probably they navigated via the rising and setting sun. North and South were derived from those known directions. Only once we developed a compass that can point north or south did east and west become secondary derived directions.