Ancient Numbers

About

Ancient Numbers covers 40 numeral and counting traditions, including modern and living systems.

Notation

Each entry identifies its period, variant, and sources. Numerals use vector drawings with consistent weight and spacing. Some complex forms adapt openly licensed font outlines; credits and licenses are included in SVG downloads.

Limits

There are 40 converters, each with an explicit supported range. Supported ranges are app limits unless stated otherwise. Number words, knots, and body counting use words or diagrams. Place-value labels and diagram guides are modern reading aids.

Calculations

Decimals and fractions are calculated exactly. If a system cannot display the result, the answer remains visible in familiar digits. Choose an operation to follow a worked method for that calculation, such as Egyptian doubling or Babylonian reciprocal division. Each lesson identifies the evidence for its method, including where a historical procedure is unknown. The Bases page explains place value, base conversion, binary, and hexadecimal.

Arithmetic research and walkthroughs

Each calculator has a worked lesson for each operator. The evidence label describes the procedure’s relationship to the sources; a reconstruction remains a worked example, with its limits stated.

Documented
A source establishes the practice; the input numbers and drawings are a new application.
Reconstruction
The lesson works through the notation or tool, with an explicitly reconstructed procedure.
Modern
A contemporary mathematical or language-based example, without an ancestral-method claim.
Recording
The notation records quantities; the calculating workspace is shown separately.
Inspect 40 calculators × 4 operators
Open any operation to try its worked example. Individual input restrictions can change the evidence label, such as Coptic division outside its surviving tables.
SystemAdditionSubtractionMultiplicationDivision
Kaktovik IñupiaqDocumentedDocumentedModernDocumented
MayaReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Mexica / AztecReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Inka khipuReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
RomanReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Greek alphabeticReconstructionReconstructionDocumentedReconstruction
Greek AtticReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
CistercianRecordingRecordingRecordingRecording
MedefaidrinReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Mende KikakuiReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
BamumReconstructionReconstructionDocumentedReconstruction
EthiopicReconstructionReconstructionDocumentedReconstruction
Coptic epactReconstructionReconstructionDocumentedDocumented
N’KoModernModernModernModern
VaiReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
OsmanyaReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
YorùbáDocumentedReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Egyptian hieroglyphicReconstructionDocumentedDocumentedDocumented
RumiRecordingDocumentedDocumentedRecording
Babylonian sexagesimalReconstructionReconstructionDocumentedDocumented
BrahmiReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
KharoshthiReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Sinhala IllakkamRecordingRecordingRecordingRecording
Traditional TamilReconstructionReconstructionDocumentedReconstruction
Chinese counting rodsReconstructionReconstructionDocumentedDocumented
SuzhouDocumentedDocumentedDocumentedDocumented
Old PersianReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
PhoenicianReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Ottoman SiyaqRecordingRecordingRecordingRecording
MangarevanReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
MāoriModernModernModernModern
HawaiianModernModernModernModern
Oksapmin body countingDocumentedDocumentedReconstructionReconstruction
Sequoyah’s Cherokee numeralsRecordingRecordingRecordingRecording
ChoctawModernModernModernModern
Diné / NavajoModernModernModernModern
Medieval European Finger CountingReconstructionReconstructionReconstructionReconstruction
Cistercian Numerical GesturesRecordingRecordingRecordingRecording
BinaryModernModernModernModern
HexadecimalModernModernModernModern

Code

The app runs in your browser with no accounts or tracking. Original code and artwork use the MIT license; adapted artwork retains its original license.

GitHub

Sources

Each system page links to references for its notation and examples.

Corrections

Submit corrections or new systems through GitHub. Include an example and a source.