QUOTE : Georges Ifrah in the Universal History of Numbers discusses simultaneity when writing about Mayan mathematics:<br /><br />We therefore see yet again how people who have been widely separated in time or space have...been led to very similar if not identical results....In some cases, the explanation for this may be found in contacts and influences between different groups of people....The true explanation lies in what we have previously referred to as the profound unity of culture: the intelligence of Homo sapiens is universal and its potential is remarkably uniform in all parts of the world.