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
An early photograph of the Salamis Tablet, 1899. The original is marble and is held by the National Museum of Epigraphy, in Athens.
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.