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The Maya numeral system originates in the preclassic Maya civilisation. By 36 BCE they had independently developed the concept of zero (as had their neighbours), but their written language extends as far back as the 4th century BCE, which is almost as old as Zapotec, the oldest written language in the Americas (circa 5th or 6th century BCE).

The Maya numeral system was base-20 (vigesimal) and base-5, with 20 independent symbols made up of dots (repeatedly cycling 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4) and bars (one bar for 5-9, two for 10-14, three for 15-19). Due to the vertically aligned positional nature of the symbols, addition and subtraction were fairly straightforward computations compared with the mental gymnastics required by the Roman system.

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13y ago

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