Ancient Number Project

Introduction In our number project we have studied five different ancient number systems. The number system developed because they had to count cattle, sheep etc.The systems that we thought were similar were the Egyptian and Babylonian and the Greek and Roman systems. The one which was quite different was the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. The system which was the most useful was the Roman numerals because you can remember them quite easily. The most creative and imaginative was the Egyptian system.

The Greeks Around 500 BC the Greeks developed a number system based on "tens". They used the Greek alphabet which had 27 letters in it. They divided the alphabet into three groups having nine letters in each one. The first nine letters stood for "one to nine" The next nine letters stood for "10 to 90" and the final set of nine letters stood for "100 to 900".

Babylonians The Babylonians used "cuneiform (wedge-shaped) symbols. The early system (around 3000 BC) was based on "60's". In this system they had groupings too, similar to the Greek system. The next group stood for "60 times 60" etc. Around 1500 BC they developed a system based on "10's". Later they also introduced a symbol for "empty space" or "0".

Ancient Egyptians Around 3000 BC the ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics (picture writing) to develop a system based on "tens". They had only seven number signs and they did not have a symbol for "zero". In order to multiply they had to write the number as many times as they needed and then add it up. They did have fractions but only had "one" above the line. For example "3/4" was written as "1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4". They could write their numbers in any order because they didn't have place values.

Hindu Arabic Hindu mathematicians used a system based on "tens" around 300 to 200 BC. They had symbols for each number from "one to nine". They had names for each power of ten. As we write "135" they wrote " 1 sata 3 dasan 5". They did not have a symbol for "zero" at that time, but later (around 600 AD) they created a "zero" symbol and used it in their calculations.

Here is a site where you can read much more about The Discovery of the Zero.

Roman The Roman numeral system uses letters to symbolize numbers. The Roman system in 500 BC was different from the one we use now. Then they wrote "four" as "IIII" and nine" as "VIIII". Today we write "four" as "IV" and nine as "IX". They also had place values.

Mayan The Mayan numbering system is based on "20's". They read their numbers vertically. The Mayans had a symbol for "zero" and had place values.

Read about the Maya number system from Hannah, Ayano and Miranda's Maya project.

Chinese The Chinese used letters to symbolize numbers. They did not have a symbol for "zero" but they used place values. It was easier for them to use addition, multiplication and division.