Counting board
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The counting board is the precursor of the abacus, and the earliest known form of a counting device. Counting boards were made of stone or wood, and the counting was done on the board with beads, pebb
This simple counting board consists of a wooden board with lines drawn on it, with pebbles (Latin: calculi) used as counters. Lines represent powers of ten and spaces between the lines represent 5 times the adjacent power of ten. The pictured number is 2,648, or in Roman numerals, MMDCXXXXVIII. The exact form and use of common ancient counting boards is not known, as few ancient counting boards and no ancient written instructions have survived.
Salamis Tablet
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The Salamis Tablet is a marble counting board dating from around 300 BC, that was discovered on the island of Salamis in 1846. A precursor to the abacus, it is thought that it represents an ancient Gr
Counting board
…twenty system, where the lines represented the bases of ten or twenty, and the spaces representing base fives. The oldest known counting board, the Salamis Tablet (c. 300 BC) was discovered on the Greek island of Salamis in 1899. It is thought to have been used as more of a gaming board than a calculating device…
An early photograph of the Salamis Tablet, 1899. The original is marble and is held by the National Museum of Epigraphy, in Athens.