It sort of takes away the notion of people getting more intelligent over the centuries
Not really. They were so interested in Jupiter because they thought it was integral to predicting the weather, the price of goods, and the fluctuating river levels.
Cofty, thank you for your post, but are you telling that the Babylonian tendency to superstition and what we now know as pseudo science has something to do with their intelligence? Aren't millions today who have learned calculus at school also interested in astology and other superstition as well?