A researcher gave a presentation on this topic a few years ago, "It's Sirius O'Clock: Astronomical Timekeeping in Ancient Egypt":
> Ever wondered how the Ancient Egyptians kept time? Well, Dr. Sarah Symons from McMaster University wondered about this, too. With the help of some of her colleagues, she participated in a research project to find out how they managed time. On April 10, 2019, she presented some of her findings at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada - Toronto Centre's Speaker's Night. The meeting was held at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto Canada.
Doesn't mention north stars at all sadly.
While we all (should) know that the Earth rotates on its axis, not as many people know that the axis is 'wobbly', kind of like a children's top as it slows down a bit. So a line that goes through the North and South Poles points differently over time: currently it points roughly to Polaris, but go back a while—e.g., Ancient Egypt—and it pointed to Thuban (and other starts between then and now):
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_star
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuban
See also two related stars for the Egyptians:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Indestructibles
The current idea is that they used those star(s) to align the pyramids:
* https://www.astronomy.com/science/are-the-egyptian-pyramids-...
* https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/thuban-past-north-star/
* https://www.science.org/content/article/stars-date-egyptian-...
If anyone is traveling/visiting the Western US, and can drop by the Hoover Dam, a similar astronomical design element is present:
> On the western flank of the Hoover Dam stands a little-understood monument, commissioned by the US Bureau of Reclamation when construction of the dam began in 01931. The most noticeable parts of this corner of the dam, now known as Monument Plaza, are the massive winged bronze sculptures and central flagpole which are often photographed by visitors. The most amazing feature of this plaza, however, is under their feet as they take those pictures.
> The plaza’s terrazzo floor is actually a celestial map that marks the time of the dam’s creation based on the 25,772-year axial precession of the earth.
* https://medium.com/the-long-now-foundation/the-26-000-year-a...
Called The Precession of the Equinoxes or Axial Precesion, the ancient societies including Egypt were also aware of this, and even bronze age cultures may have been aware (golden hats, megalithic calendars) or atleast of the related 19 year lunisolar cycle.
iirc Christmas and other mythological holidays are related to the "birth" and "death" of the north star movements, along with the sun and venus.