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The Mayan numeral system was the system to represent numbers and calendar dates in the Maya civilization. It was a vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system . The numerals are made up of three symbols: zero (a shell), [ 1 ] one (a dot) and five (a bar).
In a vigesimal place system, twenty individual numerals (or digit symbols) are used, ten more than in the decimal system. One modern method of finding the extra needed symbols is to write ten as the letter A, or A 20, where the 20 means base 20, to write nineteen as J 20, and the numbers between with the corresponding letters of the alphabet.
"A base is a natural number B whose powers (B multiplied by itself some number of times) ... Cistercian numerals: 10: 13th Century: Maya numerals: 5 & 20 <15th Century:
The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from the Mayan creation date 4 Ahaw, 8 Kumkʼu (August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6 in the Julian calendar-3113 astronomical dating). But instead of using a base-10 scheme, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme ...
Rather than using a base 10 scheme, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. In a pure base 20 scheme, 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25 and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40. The Long Count is not pure base-20, however, since the second digit from the right (and only that digit) rolls over to zero when it reaches 18.
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. [305] The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; [306] the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. [307]
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The first row has been interpreted as the prime numbers between 10 and 20 (i.e., 19, 17, 13, and 11), while a second row appears to add and subtract 1 from 10 and 20 (i.e., 9, 19, 21, and 11); the third row contains amounts that might be halves and doubles, though these are inconsistent. [14]