It has been said that the Northern Hemisphere civilization developed more rapidly than the Southern Hemisphere merely due to the fact that the Northern Hemisphere has Polaris (the North Star).
never heard that but it seems logical... we were able to use it to navigate thus learning from and building on the jones’s!!
Southern cross works pretty good also.
Maybe recently, but Polaris was not always the pole star.
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/north-star-movement/
Taking turns as the North Star
A motion of Earth called precession causes our axis to trace out an imaginary circle on the celestial sphere every 26,000 years. Thousands of years ago, when the pyramids were rising from the sands of ancient Egypt, the North Star was an inconspicuous star called Thuban in the constellation Draco the Dragon. Twelve thousand years from now, the blue-white star Vega in the constellation Lyra will be a much brighter North Star than our current Polaris.
Polaris could be a name for any North Star. Our current Polaris used to be called Phoenice. It is the 49th brightest star in the sky. It is not known for its brightness, but for its unique position in the sky.