2 in Old Persian
× 2
The dedicated two sign.
ANCIENT · DECIMAL SIGN VALUES
Old Persian
Additive cuneiform signs for units, ten, twenty, and one hundred.
Convert numbers- Place
- Achaemenid Persia · present-day Iran
- Period / variant
- Achaemenid inscriptions · from c. 525 BCE
EXAMPLES
42 · Decimal sign values
20 + 20 + 2, read left to right.
Worked example
Write 42 in Old Persian
Write the larger values first, from left to right. Each sign carries its own value; add the groups.
- × 20× 20
Write 2 signs worth 20 each: 2 × 20 = 40.
- × 2
Write this sign for 2. Its value is 2 by itself.
Check
2 × 20 + 2 = 42
Sources and notation notes
The Unicode Standard 17.0, chapter 11 · Michael Everson · Old Persian encoding proposal
Meet the symbols
Each tile shows a sign and what it means. A sign can stand for a whole amount, such as 10 or 100.
- 1
- 2
- 10
- 20
- 100
How the symbols fit together
Read left to right and add the signs. Repeated signs each contribute their full value.
- The signs used here mean 100, 20, 10, 2, and 1.
- For 42, read the first twenty sign, then the second: 20 + 20 = 40.
- Read the two sign next. Add 40 + 2 = 42.
- For 120, use a hundred sign and a twenty sign: 100 + 20 = 120. These signs already carry their amounts, so no zero placeholder is needed.
42 in Old Persian
× 20× 20× 2
20 + 20 + 2, read left to right.
120 in Old Persian
× 100× 20
100 + 20; no positional digit is needed.
The app supports additive whole numbers through 999; this is an implementation bound. It uses the five encoded numeral values and does not invent a positional zero or transfer Babylonian base-sixty rules into Old Persian.
History
Old Persian script was developed for royal monumental inscriptions associated with Darius I. Its wedge-shaped signs are a distinct writing system, not simply Babylonian cuneiform with the same mathematical rules.
How to read it
Read left to right and add the signs. Repeated signs each contribute their full value.
- The signs used here mean 100, 20, 10, 2, and 1.
- For 42, read the first twenty sign, then the second: 20 + 20 = 40.
- Read the two sign next. Add 40 + 2 = 42.
- For 120, use a hundred sign and a twenty sign: 100 + 20 = 120. These signs already carry their amounts, so no zero placeholder is needed.
Limits
The app supports additive whole numbers through 999; this is an implementation bound. It uses the five encoded numeral values and does not invent a positional zero or transfer Babylonian base-sixty rules into Old Persian.
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