One number.
Countless perspectives.

Meet the symbols

Within one place, repeat the one wedge for units and the ten wedge for tens. Here are all the combinations from 1 to 59, plus an empty place labeled 0 in this teaching grid.

• 0
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 15
• 16
• 17
• 18
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
• 23
• 24
• 25
• 26
• 27
• 28
• 29
• 30
• 31
• 32
• 33
• 34
• 35
• 36
• 37
• 38
• 39
• 40
• 41
• 42
• 43
• 44
• 45
• 46
• 47
• 48
• 49
• 50
• 51
• 52
• 53
• 54
• 55
• 56
• 57
• 58
• 59

How the symbols fit together

Count the wedges inside each group first. Then read the groups using positions worth sixty times one another.

1. Inside one group, a vertical wedge means 1 and a corner wedge means 10. Four ten-wedges and two one-wedges make 40 + 2 = 42.
2. One position can hold a value from 0 to 59. Once you reach sixty, you need another position.
3. For 61, the left group has one wedge in the sixties position. That means one group of sixty: 60.
4. The right group has one wedge in the ones position. Add 60 + 1 = 61. Our separated cells and labels show which place is which; historical readings also depended on context.

This is an educational transcription of Old Babylonian notation. Empty places are blank cells, not a historical zero sign. The cells and integer scale labels are modern aids: historical notation could leave the scale ambiguous. Later placeholder conventions are not mixed into this earlier variant.