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CHAPTER VIII.
Numerals'.
§ 170. The Sumerian system of writing numerals upon stone, i.e., The orders.­
the primitive lapidary style as found upon the inscriptions mentioned in
§ 72 is as follo,ys. For the unit one the scribes made a club-shaped line
originally placed perpendicularly, as all the primitive pictographs were
placed, but in the evolution of writing the sign became horizontal, later »
or an elongated semicircle which in cuneiform style soon developed into
-. The figures up to and including eight were written by placing the
necessary number of units in one or two lines, DD=' two', ~ ~~~ = 'eight' ",
etc. For' ten' the lapidary systell1 ell1ployed a circle • which becall1e <
in cuneiform. By combin-ing these two signs the scribes were able to
represent the numbers 11-18, and by doubling, trebling etc. the sign
for ' ten', the figures 20, 30, 40, 50 were readily obtained. Here began
with 'sixty' a third order of nUll1eration, designated by simply en-
1. Compare SAYCE, ZDMG. 1873, 696-7OZ; LENORMANT,Langue primiti[)e,
150-64; HOMMIlL, ZK. 1 210-4. The standard work on numerals is THUREAU­
DANGIN,REC. 81-90 and notes under no. 119. See also Allotte de la Fu[¡e, RA.
VII 33-47. The systems oí numeration íor land, and liquid and dry measures,
which íollow purely conventional principIes, are not discussed here since
they íorm no part oí comparative philology. Sumerian metrology has been brilliantly
exposed by F. THUREAU-DANGIN,JA. 1909 pp. 79-111.
2. Perhaps we may assign the stone fragment of Sippar, OBI. vol. 1 photos
pis. VI-VII, to the earliest periodo The system oí writing the numerals is primiti
ve here also.
3. 'Nine' is written from the earliest period onwards as '10 less 1', < r-::::, later
< T'"", Déc. ép., XLIX, pierre nail'e, col. IV end. Likewise 19 is represented
by 20-1: 29 by 30-1 etc.