I'm pretty sure even back then people were aware of celestial bodies like planets & stars. However meteorites, comets, things that came close to Earth's atmosphere were probably regarded differently depending on culture, social class/status(which vastly indicated level of education),etc. Also more likely than not those events were used politically to much success. I find it hard to believe that the 'brightest' people of any ancient period weren't aware that some of these 'small' objects might hit and thus remain on earth.