Which came first?

[zaphod]

Not sure if this is the right place for this...I didn't see a "Mathematics" section.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070813091457.htm

This I find interesting. Though it doesn't go into any great detail as to the whys and wherefores, and it doesn't give any specific, other than the Pi reference, details as to what the evidence is, it does create an atmosphere of debate in the "us against them" sector.

The possibility that Newton was not the first is what I would consider a dose of healthy skeptisism. One should never sit on the laurels of what is considered established.

After all, the ancient Persians were one of the foremost intelectually advanced cultures before they had a collective brain fart.   

[Vitruvius]

"The beginnings of modern maths is usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries have been ignored or forgotten."

Ignored is more like it.  There is an inherent prejudice of the west when it comes to Asian and Middle East cultures, which were, for a time, more advances than the west for many years.

The west was dominated by Christian theology, which tended to ignore anything not rooted in the ways of their god.  In a similiar way, they ignored all the progress of the Greeks in the Classical Age because it was considered "pagan" wisdom. 

[19Merlin69]

I've always understood that the Indians, like the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Celts and the Asians all arose around the same time - long prior to the "Europeans" per se.  It would follow then that each would have run across similiar fundamental understandings at relatively similar points in their development and those would eventually evolve into a more refined view as needed.  It hardly makes logical sense that Newton would have developed a thought, in its [nearly] complete state from scratch with no previous need (or exposure) to the general principle.  It just doesn't track with reality or the understanding of complex systems. 

Consider this, base ¹² and base ⁴⁰ math was first discovered in far off lands (Asia and South America) before the notion that "alternate numbering systems" could exist.  It was later "discovered" that multiple base mathematics could be applied in order to make short work of complex calculations.  Somehow I doubt that the Italians credited the Asians and Indians  (of South America) with that discovery.