2.1 Babylonian numerals and "place value" (Lesson 4)

In around 2000 B.C., Babylonian civilisation flourished in Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers") is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq. They had developed an abstract form of writing based on cuneiform (i.e., wedge-shaped) symbols. Their symbols were written on wet clay tablets, which were baked in the hot sun.

Clay tablets with cuneiform writings

Credit: Wikipedia

Babylonian number system is way more advanced than the Egyptian number system because of its use of the so-called "positional system" i.e., the value of a particular numeral depends both on the digit itself and its position within the number. The number system we use nowadays is also an example of positional system.