Babylonian sexagesimal positional system
Sistema posicional sexagesimal babilónico
- Date
- c. 2000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Babylon and Nippur, Mesopotamia (Iraq)
- Credited to
- Sumerian and Babylonian scribes
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
First positional numeral system, in base 60, with sexagesimal fractions that allowed precise calculation of roots and reciprocal tables. It survives in the division of hours and degrees.
The intermediate positional zero was marked with a separator sign only from the Seleucid period onwards (c. 300 BCE); there was never a final zero.
What it led to
- positional notation
- astronomical tables
- exact fractions
- the measurement of time and angles
Built on
- Clay accounting tokensc. 8000 BCE
- Sumerian numerals
Made possible
- Trigonometry as a disciplinec. 980
- predictive astronomy
- clocks