Arrowheads, letters, dots
Babylonia was an important kingdom in the Near East about five thousand
years ago. The Babylonians invented one of the first forms of writing,
and wrote many texts on mathematics. They did their writing on clay
tablets, with a little stick that made a small mark shaped like an
arrowhead. Their numerals for one to ten looked like this:
vw vvv yw [yvv]{.smallcaps} rvv vw y yy yyy y ~y~y yyy y~Y~y
WY
^T^ V VV VVY
1 23456789 10
The Greeks of about 2,500 years ago took a different approach. Instead
of making up a special sign for each numeral, they simply used the
letters of their alphabet. So, their numerals for one to ten looked like
this:
A E r 4 E F Z H 9 I
1 23 456789 10
The Maya Indians built a great civilization in Central America about
1,800 years ago. They were the only Indians in America to work out an
advanced form of writing. And they did a great deal of work with
numbers. When they first learned to count, they must have used their
fingers and their toes, for their number system is based on twenty.
Their numerals for one to ten looked like this:
About two thousand years ago, the Hindu people of India were using
numerals that looked like this:
The numerals the Hindus used are of great importance to us. Over many
years, and with some changes, they became the numerals we use today!
