When was the abacus invented how to#

It has 5 horizontal lines divided by a single vertical line.

The tablet is a white marble slate with dimensions of 150 × 75 × 4.5 cm. But, according to historians, it was used by the Babylonians around 300 BC, making it the oldest version of the abacus. It was discovered as late as 1846 on the Island of Salamis. While some used sticks on the sand, others used pebbles on wooden surfaces. So, the tablet is the first proper ancestor of the modern abacus. Because then, the abacus was just a method of calculating. Researchers speculate the number to be 1741 or 4/6 Drachma.Īfter the Greek counting devices, the next remarkable development was the tablet in the Island of Salamis.Įxplore now The Salamis Tablet in the Island of Salamis, Greece Source: Wikipediaīefore the invention of the tablet, the previous models were either too primitive or weren’t models at all. The O is Obol the Boeotian symbol for 1/6 of a Drachma, C for half an Obol, and T for a quarter of an Obol. Next to these numbers, if you look at the picture carefully, you’ll see the former symbols pf Greek coins. (Picture Credits: The Mathematical Tourist)Īccording to Wikipedia, the M = 10.000, Ψ is Boeotian for 1.000, H = 100, Δ = 10, and =5. The table/board contains the letters M Ψ H Δ. The Greek artifact, dated around 300 BCE, depicts a royal treasurer receiving tax and calculating them on an abacus.Īs you can see, the calculating table/abacus has Greek numerals and a small number pebbles/counters in front of it to calculate large numbers. The biggest evidence of Greeks using abacus is the below picture in the Darius Vase. It was referred as the Counter Abacus because it had smaller units of various things, also called counters, to calculate. The Greek abacus was more like a flat wooden or marble table set with smaller units of wood/marbles/pebbles to conduct the calculations. It was where the idea of abacus took the name abacus. Reaching Greece was an absolute milestone in the journey of abacus. Picture Credits: The Mathematical Tourist The Counter Abacus in Greece Darius Vase.

Apparently, he adopted the skill and the device when he visited Babylon. Iamblichus mentions in Life of Pythagoras, that Pythagoras himself introduced the abacus to the Greek civilization. Nonetheless, Babylon is an important pillar in the history of abacus because it was the gateway for the counting device to enter Greece. Therefore, as expected, the Babylonians eventually moved on from the counting frame. Apparently, the counting frame wasn’t enough for the advance Babylonian calculations. The abacus reached Babylon around 400 BCE. The Greek historian and geographer Herodotus testified that Egyptians were calculating with pebbles moving them from right to left. However, the ancient Egyptian counting frame was mainly a flat surface on which pebbles were moved from right to left to perform basic counting operations. The Right-to-Left Pebble Abacus in EgyptĪs old as Mesopotamian civilization, this calculating device also traveled to ancient Egypt.

When was the abacus invented how to#

In other words, people learnt how to use an abacus before learning how to write. Picture Credits:, The First Ninety YearsĪccording to Christopher Woods, it was so ancient and primal to the Mesopotamian culture that counting using an abacus preceded writing. So, the major part this information is based on textual research and logical assumption. Moreover, the Sumerians used both counting boards and beaded calculating arrangement to count.ĭear readers, you must understand that there’s no archaeological evidence of Mesopotamians using abacus. Even though it wasn’t a beaded counting frame, as we use now, it was indeed the ancestor of the this modern calculator. Math-historians and scholars claim the earliest trace of abacus use was in Mesopotamia between 2700-2300 BC. The Ancient History of Abacus Earliest Roots of Abacus in Mesopotamia

Their previous method of counting, fingers and toes, weren’t sufficient to calculate taxes or trading transactions.

They needed a mechanical computation (something composite) to do the calculations on.

The ancient numerals weren’t suitable for calculating big numbers.

Why did the Ancient Civilizations Needed an Abacus?