George Joseph's Crest of the Peacock

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One of the overall things that surprised me about this reading was the extent to which math development overlapped. The existence of the Bait al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad was particularly intriguing to me. The fact that a library containing Indian, Babylonian, Hellinistic, and possibly Chinese knowledge existed as early as the late 700s, and would go on to be the institution from which al-Khwarizmi would publish two books so influential to mathematics was new to me. I had initially thought math developed more or less in isolation until those branches met when travel became more prominent but I hadn't realized how early different civilizations began collaborating and influencing one another in this field. 

I also found it interesting that Buddhist pilgrimages were what really started the exchange of science and culture between China and India. In this case, I actually thought there would be more interactions between the two regions for trading purposes (which again exposes how little I know about the history of the world on a whole!). As well as the exchange of math, I would be interested to know the extent to which the two had cultural influences over one another (in my own time, of course!)

The achievements of Mayan civilization was another thing that surprised me. In particular, their accuracy in astronomy without the use of optic devices or a clock of some sort is mystifying. Looking at it with the knowledge we have today, it seems inconceivable that they were able to make astronomical discoveries with the level of accuracy that they achieved. I also wonder if this could be a case of artifacts lost or destroyed over time. If not, I wonder how they managed to do it!