Mainly, ancient scientists were limited with studying the planets. Usually, they had to just look up at the planets to study them. They would make notes of the changes that they would see and compare them. However, there are things that they could see in the sky like meteors that they did not need. Due to the formation of the stars in the sky, the ancient scientists knew where the planets aligned to them.
Planets could be seen and they were different in appearance. That is how the people were able to identify them. Before the telescope, the ancient people used other tools to enlarge the objects in the sky but they were still limited but it was better than using the naked eye.