Why does it appear many overlook the Mayans as the first culture to discovered the Zero?

Question

If anything, it appears that the date of the Indian discovery of the Zero may be accurately identified but the date of the Mayan discovery of the Zero is not as certain. Yet there appears to be evidence the Mayan Culture used their numbering systems prior to the Indian discovery of the Zero.

Please provide additional resources other than the ones listed below to further a better answer to this question.

Resources:
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Mayan_mathematics.html
http://www.mayacalendar.com/mayacalendar/f-mayamath.html
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Zero.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmagupta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ma%27mun

Answer 1

could be..
doesn't mean they were.

Just like Greeks didn't discover the alphabet just added the vowels.

Answer 2

That's an excellent question.
But one should remember history is nothing more than a careful layout of exhibits- we always piece together our history from what we have at hand.
Once upon a time people thought the pyramids had existed eternally now we have a date for them
Early Dutch thought the Javanese to be mere savages without a history, but that quickly changed when they uncovered Borobudur.
Summary- history is merely discovered fact. When a new fact is uncovered, history will be altered to accomodate that new artifact. As it always has.

Answer 3

Because Western Civilization got its math from the Arabs, who got theirs from the Greeks, Romans, and the (eastern) Indians.

Modern math did not come from the Mayans. It appears that modern civilization has gotten nothing from the Mayan civilization that we didn't have already. Tough luck for them.

Answer 4

Didn't the Egyptians use zero in the early Dynastic period and abandon the concept later on? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

Answer 5

surely, the first person to discover zero, was nobody.
thats the concept