History of ancient numeral systems facts for kids

Have you ever wondered how people counted before numbers were invented? For thousands of years, humans have found clever ways to keep track of things. From using their fingers and simple marks to creating complex symbols, the journey of numbers is fascinating! This article explores how we got the amazing number systems we use today.

Early Counting Methods

Imagine living long ago without numbers. How would you count your sheep or how many days until the next full moon? People probably started by using their fingers. It's easy and always available! Many early counting systems around the world used groups of five, ten, or twenty. This suggests people used their hands and even their feet to count. Our brains are even wired to connect numbers with our fingers!

Since fingers aren't great for counting huge amounts or remembering things for a long time, people started using other tools. They made tally marks by carving notches into wood, bone, or stone. Some of these marks are over 40,000 years old! They might have been used to count days, moon cycles, or even how many animals someone had. It's hard to know for sure what every mark meant, but they show us how early humans kept records.

Ancient Bones That Tell a Story

The Lebombo bone is a famous baboon bone found in Africa. It's about 42,000 years old and has 29 notches carved into it. Some people think it might have been used like a calendar to track the moon's phases. This would mean some of the first mathematicians were African women! However, the bone is broken, so there might have been more notches. Other similar bones were used for memory aids, not just counting.

Another amazing find is the Ishango bone, which is about 25,000 years old. It has groups of notches that look like tally marks. Some researchers believe these marks show a deep understanding of math, possibly even prime numbers! For example, one row has numbers like 19, 17, 13, and 11. Others think the marks might have been for a simple purpose, like making the bone easier to grip. The true meaning of the Ishango bone is still a mystery that scientists debate.

Clay Tokens: Early Accounting Tools

Uruk period: This clay ball, called a bulla, held tokens inside. It's from ancient Susa and is now in the Louvre Museum.

About 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, people in places like Syria and Iran started using small clay tokens to keep records. This was one of the earliest ways to write down numbers!

Imagine you had two sheep. You would use two tokens, each representing one sheep. Different types of tokens were used for different things. For example, there was a token for one sheep, a different token for ten sheep, and another for sixty sheep! These tokens came in various shapes and sizes to show different amounts. This system helped people keep track of their goods.

How Clay Tokens Became Numbers

To make sure tokens weren't lost or changed, people put them inside hollow clay balls called bullae. Think of them like ancient envelopes! Owners would press their seals onto the outside of the bulla to show who it belonged to.

Later, people started pressing the tokens onto the outside of the bulla before sealing them inside. This way, you could see what was inside without breaking the bulla. Eventually, people realized they didn't need the tokens inside at all! They just pressed the shapes onto flat clay tablets. This was a big step towards writing down numbers as we know them.

By this time, the Sumerians, an ancient civilization, had already developed advanced math. They probably used tokens or counting boards to do their calculations.

From Marks to Written Numerals

Proto-Cuneiform: The First Written Numbers

Around 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, the marks pressed onto clay tablets became the first written numbers, called proto-cuneiform numerals. Scribes used a round stick, called a stylus, to press different shapes into soft clay.

Just like the tokens, each numerical sign showed both the item being counted and its quantity. For example, a certain mark might mean "five jars of grain." The Sumerians had many different counting systems for different things. They had one for animals, tools, and people, and special systems for cheese, grain, land, and even time! This shows how important counting was in their daily lives.

Cuneiform: Wedge-Shaped Numbers

This Middle Babylonian legal tablet from Alalakh is still in its original clay envelope.

Around 2700 BCE, the round stylus was replaced by a reed stylus. This new tool made wedge-shaped marks, which is why this writing system is called cuneiform.

Cuneiform numbers could sometimes be confusing. It was hard to tell if a number was a whole number or a fraction, or if it represented a large or small amount. To fix this, around 2100 BCE, the Sumerians developed a clever system called sexagesimal. This system used a base of 60, similar to how we use a base of 10 today. It helped them convert between different counting systems.

You still use the sexagesimal system today! We use it to count time (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour) and angles (360 degrees in a circle). Later, a base-10 version of this system became popular, especially as other cultures like the Akkadians became more influential.

Roman Numerals

The Roman numerals you might see on old buildings or clocks developed from symbols used by the Etruscans, an ancient Italian civilization, around 2,500 years ago.

In the Etruscan system, a single vertical mark meant 1. Two crossed marks meant 10, and three crossed marks meant 100. The Roman numerals we know today, like I (1), V (5), X (10), L (50), C (100), D (500), and M (1000), came from these earlier symbols. For example, the Roman C for 100 probably came from the Etruscan symbol for 100, even though it looks quite different now!

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