In the southern hemisphere, seasons are inverted compared to the northern hemisphere. Before the current knowledge that this is caused by Earth’s tilt compared to its rotation around the sun, how did people explain this?
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i suspect you are using the word ‘ancient’ incorrectly or you don’t comprehend how primitive the ancients were, ancients generally had rudimentary calendars at best, and those who had calendars likely had the technology to do so because they don’t do the ancient version of touching grass (being nomadic)
. travelling through the tropics is a long journey that was probably
done by a very miniscule amount of people who lived at that time, a journey taking several months at the minimum, if they’re speedrunning it, and any such observation probably wouldn’t go much further than “hot time year come quick? just me?”
Ancient peoples? Ancient peoples did not travel to the other side of the planet and those that might have never made it back.
Why would you explain something that didn’t happen in a place that doesn’t exist?
The ancient Greeks thought as you traveled South, it kept getting hotter and hotter until life was unsustainable. If you traveled north, it got colder and colder until yet again life was unsustainable.
They didn’t. It’s worth noting that the ability to travel to the other side of the globe in a day (or eaven in a month) is a modern phenomenon. So even the relatively tiny number of people who do make such a trip probably won’t notice anything odd with the seasons.
There is some evidence of an Egyptian expedition that went well south of the equator and in fact, may have circumnavigated Africa in about 600 BCE.
Herodotus tells a story about Egyptian king Necho who ordered an expedition of Phoenician sailers to sail west through the Mediterranean and circumnavigate Africa. Their trip took three years, but produced a startling result.
During the return half the voyage, when they were sailing east, the sailers observed the sun was on the wrong side of the ship. They were used to the sun being on their right when sailing east, but it was reported to be on their left.
Herodotus, the writer who related the story, did not believe their story because he thought the sun would not so such a thing. Although if you are south of the equator, that’s exactly what they would see.
No one is certain the story is true, but the very fact which caused its reporter to doubt it may be evidence it was true.
Had they spent any time in the southern part of Africa, they might well have noticed the seasons were backwards from their northern experience.
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