Ancient World Cosmology

Many years ago men were without knowledge that the world is round.  It is interesting that in considering the world to be flat that they also assumed that it was somehow square.  Sometimes they would refer to the four corners of the earth.  Their conception of the relationship between the earth and the heavens were with the assumption that the world was flat and that all else was in a dome above them. The Bible has many references to the things seen in outer space.  Below is a drawing depicting the world and the heavens as they understood it. 

Ancient civilizations around the world developed legends about personality traits exhibited by different star clusters.  Additionally they structured religions and folklore pertaining to these 'gods'.  It could be said that these religions were astrotheologically derived.  

For further study, an interesting study of cosmology of the ancients may be found at A Common Cosmology of the Ancient World .