The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c5.3

c5.3

Of the first number forms that the world used this is not the place to speak. Many of them are interesting, but none had much scientific value. In Europe the invention of notation was generally assigned to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean until the critical period of about a century ago, — sometimes to the Hebrews, sometimes to the Egyptians, but more often to the early trading Phœnicians.¹