http://www.rocknroll.force9.co.uk/science/roma.html
Rated • 1 review • ancient history • force9.co.uk
From the page:
The ancient people of Sumer, were very forward thinking and advanced, they are thought to be the first people to have come up with the now familiar system that we use today of ordered positions in the string. Also known as powers. ...
The difference between our system and the Sumerians one is that we use base ten ( decimal ) and they used base sixty ( sexagesimal ). So influential was their system, that we still use it today.
Time in minutes and seconds is counted in Sumerian Sexagecimal, and also angles in degrees ( which are also divided into degrees, minutes and seconds ).
Long before the greek mathematician Pythagarus, the Sumerians were doing complicated mathematics with angles. It's possible that Pythagarus may have only re discovered, or re translated old Sumerian work.
Fascinating!
