Editing Mathematical notation (section)

=== Numbers ===
It is believed that a notation to represent [[number]]s was first developed at least 50,000 years ago.<ref name="Eves_1990"/> Early mathematical ideas such as [[finger counting]]<ref name="Ifrah_2000"/> have also been represented by collections of rocks, sticks, bone, clay, stone, wood carvings, and knotted ropes. The [[tally stick]] is a way of counting dating back to the [[Upper Paleolithic]]. Perhaps the oldest known mathematical texts are those of ancient [[Sumer]]. The [[census quipu|Census Quipu]] of the Andes and the [[Ishango Bone]] from Africa both used the [[tally mark]] method of accounting for numerical concepts.

The concept of [[zero]] and the introduction of a notation for it are important developments in early mathematics, which predates for centuries the concept of zero as a number. It was used as a placeholder by the [[Babylonian numerals|Babylonians]] and [[Greek numerals|Greek Egyptians]], and then as an [[integer]] by the [[Maya numerals|Mayans]], [[Indian numerals|Indians]] and [[Arabic numerals|Arabs]] (see [[History of zero|the history of zero]]).