What did ancient civilizations think when they first saw Halley's Comet?

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they would have thought it to be a ball of fire/light thrown either some of their colleagues or someelse from one horizon towards the other.
 
It was like an omen to them. They knew it came regularly every 75½ years. The Sumerians and the Akkadians had documents of comet-like occurrences that are likely to be based on sightings of Halley's comet.
 
It was like an omen to them. They knew it came regularly every 75½ years. The Sumerians and the Akkadians had documents of comet-like occurrences that are likely to be based on sightings of Halley's comet.
 
im researching Halley's Comet for science class and i cant figure out what the ancient civilizations thought of it before they knew anything about it.
 
"We are so screwed!" Comets had a nasty habit of showing up along with conquering armies and plagues (pure coink-idink, but best not to aggravate the gods).
See the Bayeux tapestry panel of King Harold and the 1066 invasion by the Normans.
No records exist if the ancients truly understood Halley's was a repeater. First modern man to put a bunch of sightings into the same bucket was Halley himself.
 
I don't know of any observations of Halley's Comet from "ancient civilizations." The earliest record I know of was its appearance in 1066 prior to the battle of Hastings. The comet is nicely depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. At that time it was taken as a portent of upcoming disaster, which certainly happened for King Harold of England, defeated by William the Conqueror.
 
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