Editing Etruscan numerals (section)

===Origins===
The Etruscan digits may have been based on the Greek [[Attic numerals]].{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}  However, other hypotheses have been advanced.

==== Hand signals ====
An old hypothesis, advanced by Th. Mommsen in 1887 and echoed by A. Hooper, is that the digits for 1, 5, and 10 were iconic for hand [[gestures for counting]].

In that hypothesis, the early inhabitants of the region counted from 1 to 4 by extending the same number of long fingers (index to little); gestures that were represented in writing by "𐌠", "𐌠𐌠", "𐌠𐌠𐌠", "𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠".  The count of 5 was signaled by extending those 4 fingers plus the thumb; and the written digit "𐌡" is then meant to depict that hand, with the thumb out to the side. The numbers 6 to 9 then would be signaled by one fully open hand and 1 to 4 long fingers extended in the other; which would be depicted as "𐌡𐌠", "𐌡𐌠𐌠", "𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠", "𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠".  Finally 10 would be signaled by two hands with all fingers and thumbs extended; which, in writing, would be represented by the upper and lower halves of the digit "𐌢".<ref>Alfred Hooper. ''The River Mathematics'' (New York, H. Holt, 1945).</ref><ref name=momm1887>Th. Mommsen (1887): "Zahl- und Bruchzeichen". ''Hermes'', volume 22, issue 4, pp. 596–614.</ref>

==== Tally marks ====
Another hypothesis, which seems to be more accepted today{{According to whom|date=April 2022}}, is that the Etrusco-Roman numerals actually derive from notches on [[tally stick]]s, which continued to be used by Italian and [[Dalmatia]]n shepherds into the 19th century.<ref name="Ifrah2000">{{
cite book
| first1 = Georges
| last1 = Ifrah
| title = The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer
| others = Translated by David Bellos, E. F. Harding, Sophie Wood, Ian Monk
| publisher = John Wiley & Sons
| year = 2000
}}</ref><ref name=heem2009/> Unfortunately, being made of perishable wood, no tally sticks would have survived from that period.<ref name=heem2009/>

In that system, each unit counted would be recorded as a notch cut across the stick. Every fifth notch was double cut, i.e. "𐌡"  and every tenth was cross cut, "𐌢"; much like European [[tally marks]] today. For example, a count of '28' would then look like 
:𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌢𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌢𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠

When transposing the final count to writing (or to another stick), it would have been unnecessary to copy each "𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠Λ𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠" before a "𐌢", or each "𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠" before a Λ. So the count of '28' would be written down as simply  "𐌢𐌢𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠".