The short grooves on the right may have been used for marking Roman ounces.Ĭomputations are made by means of beads which would probably have been slid up and down the grooves to indicate the value of each column. The beads in the shorter grooves denote fives - five units, five tens, etc., essentially in a bi-quinary coded decimal system, obviously related to the Roman numerals. The groove marked I indicates units, X tens, and so on up to millions. The Late Empire Roman abacus shown here in reconstruction contains eight long and eight shorter grooves, the former having up to five beads in each and the latter one. Below this crack is another group of eleven parallel lines, again divided into two sections by a line perpendicular to them but with the semi-circle at the top of the intersection the third, sixth and ninth of these lines are marked with a cross where they intersect with the vertical line. Below these lines is a wide space with a horizontal crack dividing it. In the center of the tablet are a set of five parallel lines equally divided by a vertical line, capped with a semi-circle at the intersection of the bottom-most horizontal line and the single vertical line. Its construction is a slab of white marble measuring 149cm in length, 75cm in width and 4.5cm thick, on which are five groups of markings. It was originally thought to be a gaming board. The plural of abacus is abaci.Ī tablet found on the island of Salamis (near Greece) in 1846 dates back to the Babylonians of 300 BC making it the oldest counting board discovered so far. Because abax also had the sense of "table sprinkled with sand or dust, used for drawing geometric figures," it is speculated by some linguists that the Greek word may be derived from a Semitic root, abaq, the Hebrew word for "dust." Though details of the transmission are obscure, it may also be derived from the Phoenician word abak, meaning "sand". The Latin word came from abakos, the Greek genitive form of abax ("calculating-table"). The use of the word abacus dates back to before 1387 when a Middle English work borrowed the word from Latin to describe a sandboard abacus. From this, a variety of abaci were developed the most popular were based on the bi-quinary system, using a combination of two bases (base-2 and base-5) to represent decimal numbers. Lines were drawn in the sand and pebbles used to aid calculations. The first abacus was almost certainly based on a flat stone covered with sand or dust. The origins of the abacus are disputed, suggestions including invention in Babylonia and in China, to have taken place between 2400 BC and 300 BC. It was in use centuries before the adoption of the written Hindu-Arabic numeral system and even to this day is still widely used by merchants and clerks in China and elsewhere. The toys are made with great attention to quality and safety.Tracing the History of the Computer - AbacusĪn abacus is a calculation tool, often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires. These products are made using locally available soft wood called Ale Mara, natural lacquer and vegetable dyes like turmeric, spinach and indigo. These products are absolutely eco friendly and non hazardous. These handcrafted wooden crafts are made using traditional, turned lacquer ware techniques and are coloured using natural dyes.Said to have originated in Persia, Tipu Sultan got local artisans from around Channapatana to learn and develop it, originally to make toys. This handcrafted product is made by artisans of Channapatna Woodcraft, craft that has existed since the 1700s near Bangalore in Karnataka.A time tested educational aid to introduce counting to children. This 1-10 abacus has wooden lacware beads colored in natural dyes and elastic thread is used to string the beads. It has a sturdy frame made up of pine wood sides and metal pipes for top and bottom. Abacus is an early childhood educational aid. The toys are made with great attention to quality and safety. These handcrafted wooden crafts are made using traditional, turned lacquer ware techniques and are coloured using natural dyes. This handcrafted product is made by artisans of Channapatna Woodcraft, craft that has existed since the 1700s near Bangalore in Karnataka.
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