Yes, I agree. No mention of well tempered scales and the contortions that were needed to achieve them. Even at the time they knew it was a compromise. Yet today

Yes, I agree. No mention of well tempered scales and the contortions that were needed to achieve them. Even at the time they knew it was a compromise. Yet today we (in the west) take them for granted. And not only octaves. Most instruments will yield various harmonics and no civilisation will have been unaware of them. It is no coincidence that for us a natural harmonic lies between a major 3rd and a minor one.