I think it's condescending towards the antique people to claim that they couldn't have figured these things out themselves. People were in all ways as smart and

I think it's condescending towards the antique people to claim that they couldn't have figured these things out themselves. People were in all ways as smart and capable as us, they just had lower technology level and different concepts. I'm sure there were some concepts lost to the ages that could be developed into amazing modern technology. It's just how invention works - many times a great invention is not recognized as valuable. Zero is classic case. It was invented independently in various times and areas and forgotten. Without zero you can't have a positional numeric system.