>> (Actually, the history of science and mathematics seems to involve 
>> quite a lot of things being discovered, forgotten and then 
>> rediscovered, often after a seriously large length of time.)
> 
> That happens a lot when fanatics burn down libraries. Hasn't really 
> happened much since the invention of the printing press.

Which, AFAIK, is "fairly recent".

(I still find it amusing that if you plot the names of all the famous 
mathematicians on a graph, there's this big cluster in the middle, about 
400 years ago, and there's Pythagorus at the other end of the graph. And 
seemingly nothing inbetween. Also seemingly nothing since a few hundred 
years ago. I guess mathematicians aren't all that famous any more...)

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