Babylonian cuneiform numerals
numeral system used in ancient Babylonia
The numeral system of the Babylonians, also used in Assyria and Chaldea, was written in cuneiform using a wedge-tipped reed stylus to print a mark on a soft clay tablet, which would be exposed in the sun to harden to create a permanent record.
The Babylonians were famous for their astronomical observations, as well as their calculations (aided by their invention of the abacus), and used a sexagesimal (base-60) number system inherited from either the Sumerian or the Akkadian civilizations. The Babylonian system, however, was positional (having a convention for which "end" of the numeral represented the units).
Origins
This system first appeared around 2000 BC; its structure reflects the decimal lexical numerals of Semitic languages rather than Sumerian lexical numbers. However, the use of a special Sumerian sign for 60 (beside two Semitic signs for the same number) attests to a relation with the Sumerian system.
Symbols
The Babylonian system is credited as being the first known positional numeral system, in which the value of a particular digit depends both on the digit itself and its position within the number. This was an extremely important development because non-place-value systems require unique symbols to represent each power of a base (ten, one hundred, one thousand, and so forth), which can make calculations more difficult.
Only two symbols (𒁹 to count units and 𒌋 to count tens) were used to notate the 59 non-zero digits. These symbols and their values were combined to form a digit in a sign-value notation quite similar to that of Roman numerals; for example, the combination 𒌋𒌋𒁹𒁹𒁹 represented the digit for 23 (see table of digits above).
These digits were used to represent larger numbers in the base 60 (sexagesimal) positional system.
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