Egyptians created the first chipered numeral system around 3,400 BC. Then followed by the Greeks by mapping their counting numbers onto Ionian and Doric alphabets. Well numbers mean many things: counting, or spoken values, or written values and lastly structured standardized written numbering.
Ancient man has been counting since before they could walk upright. This has been shown by apes who will sometimes orgainize in a linear order...which is basically crude counting. One, two, three bannanas.
Ancient pre-Sumerian civilizations as far back as 8000BC used a numeration that was basically fingernail marks on clay.
Sumerian civilization had "standardized" their numbering system by about 3000BC. Which had a structured 1-6 counting. A circle with lines inside, kind of like cutting out pie pieces.
It can be said that the first WRITTEN numbers were done by the Ancient Egyptians found in hieroglyphs about 2700 BC.
They had symbols for 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000 and 1000000.
Egyptians later revised the symbols using lines that included unique symbols for 1 thru 10 at about 2200 BC.
The ancient Indian cultures also evolved multiple number sets Brahmi, Gupta and Nagari number sets as early as 3000BC. But there was so much variance on the numbering between areas the "dates and origins" are still debated today.
Cultures created all kinds of numbering systems Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Arab/Islam.
The idea to create individual symbols for each number between 1 and 9 sprouted in many cultures as far away as China and Mayan cultures. Indian culture proposed a standardized set in about 800AD which is used by India and some nearby nations.
What we call the European numbers were evolved in the Iberian peninsula during the Moors/Christian battles 400 to 1400 AD, what is know as modern day Spain and Portugal. During the battles the Christians learned from what the Moors had collected over their empire. So Symbols for Numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 were standardized by about 1400 AD spread with Latin/Christian based cultures.
To this day...there are still many cultures who use their own numbering system.
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