Abacus History
Greek Abacus History
The earliest archaeological evidence for the use of the Greek abacus dates to the 5th century BC. The Greek abacus was a table of wood or marble, pre-set with small counters in wood or metal for mathematical calculations. This Greek abacus saw use in Achaemenid Persia, the Etruscan civilization, Ancient Rome and, until the French Revolution, the Western Christian world.
A tablet found on the Greek island Salamis in 1846 AD (the Salamis Tablet ), dates back to 300 BC, making it the oldest counting board discovered so far. It is a slab of white marble 149 cm (59 in) long,75 cm (30 in) wide, and 4.5 cm (2 in) thick, on which are five groups of markings.
In the center of the tablet is a set of five parallel lines equally divided by a vertical line, capped with a semicircle at the intersection of the bottom-most horizontal line and the single vertical line.Below these lines is a wide space with a horizontal crack dividing it. Below this crack is another group of eleven parallel lines, again divided into two sections by a line perpendicular to them, but with the semicircle at the top of the intersection; the third, sixth and ninth of these lines are marked with across where they intersect with the vertical line.
| More Links: Greek Abacus History |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus As per the Wikipedia article the earliest archaeological evidence for the use of the Greek abacus dates to the 5th century BC. The Greek abacus was a table of wood or marble, pre-set with small counters in wood or metal for mathematical calculations |
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http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/greekmath/f/AncientAbacus.htm The word "abacus" comes from the Greek, and there is a fragment from Lysias that specifically mentions the word abacus. There are other passages in ancient Greek literature that describe specific stone counting procedures. |
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http://history-computer.com/CalculatingTools/abacus.html |