Finger Numbers in the Greco-Roman World and the Early Middle Ages

Abstract

N THE ANCIENT WORLD, people often indicated numbers for themselves and others by using specific finger gestures. Further, arithmetical computations were commonly carried out by finger manipulations more complex than merely counting on one's fingers. Although ancient writers (see Appendix A) and archaeological evidence both attest to the use of finger numbers and finger reckoning, it is puzzling that none of the extant ancient sources offers any reason for the continued use of finger numbers long after writing had become common. Modem writers of the history of mathematics, however, have not hesitated to leap into the gap. A frequently resurrected theory suggests that this ancient finger number system was used to bridge language barriers between foreign merchants and their customers.1 Although finger symbols might have aided such commerce, we contend that this explanation is too simplistic and does not fit either ancient literary or archaeological evidence.