Numeral systems have progressed from the use of fingers and tally marks, perhaps more than 40,000 years ago, to the use of sets of glyphs able to represent any conceivable number efficiently. The earl
Uruk period: globular envelope with a cluster of accountancy tokens, from Susa. Louvre Museum
Middle Babylonian legal tablet from Alalakh in its envelope
Cuneiform
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Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the 1st century BC. Cuneifor
A trilingual cuneiform inscription of Xerxes I at Van Fortress in Turkey, an Achaemenid royal inscription written in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian forms of cuneiform
Numerical tablet, 3500–3350 BC (Uruk V phase), Khafajah
Pre-cuneiform tags, with drawing of goat or sheep and number (probably "10"), Al-Hasakah, 3300–3100 BC, Uruk culture