The Babylonian Number System
About 5,000 years ago, the Babylonians began a numbering system. Their numbering system is one of the oldest numbering systems in the world. The Babylonians' most amazing accomplishment was math tables, which helped them in solving math equations. Like most ancient number systems, the Babylonians began theirs with just tally marks. Then, after that, they started writing a sort of wedges to symbolize numbers. They wrote these wedge numbers on wet clay tablets, which they dried in the sun. Many of these clay tablets are still around today.
About 5,000 years ago, the Babylonians began a numbering system. Their numbering system is one of the oldest numbering systems in the world. The Babylonians' most amazing accomplishment was math tables, which helped them in solving math equations. Like most ancient number systems, the Babylonians began theirs with just tally marks. Then, after that, they started writing a sort of wedges to symbolize numbers. They wrote these wedge numbers on wet clay tablets, which they dried in the sun. Many of these clay tablets are still around today.
The numbers they wrote looked something like the examples below.
Any number less than 10 had a wedge that pointed down.
Example:4
The number 10 was shown by a wedge pointing to the left.
Example:20
Numbers less than 60 were made by combining wedges.
Example:47
Numbers over 60 were made by putting a "down wedge" where they would usually put a "sideways wedge".
Example:64
They did not have a wedge for zero, but they did use the idea of zero. When they wanted to write zero, they left a blank space in the number they were writing.
When they wrote the number 60, they put a short, little "line mark" in the second place of the numeral.
Example:60
When they wrote the number 120, they put two "down wedges" in the first place, and one "line mark" in the second.
Example:120
Babylonians created their own number system; they didn't borrow it from another civilization.
