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Found out the Maya figured out the number zero like 300 years before anyone else in the Americas
I was reading a plaque at the museum in Guatemala City last month and it said the earliest zero glyph they've dug up dates to around 36 BC on a stone slab. Growing up I always got taught that zero was an old world thing and the Maya just did calendars, so this kinda flipped that for me. Anyone here actually seen one of those early glyph stones in person? Wondering how clear the zero symbol is when it's carved on something that old.
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daniel55212d ago
The whole "zero was an old world thing" line is what got me too, and then you see that 36 BC date and it kinda rewires your brain a bit. I haven't seen the slab itself but I did get to look at some early glyphs at a site museum in Mexico and honestly the carving was way cleaner than I expected, deep lines and easy to make out once the guide pointed at it. The light matters a ton though, like you have to catch it at the right angle or it just looks like scratches.
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