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Dots for ones, bars for fives.
Also known as: Maya numerals, Bar and dot notation
The Maya numeral notation writing numbers with dots for units and bars for fives in a base-twenty system.
Write numbers in a base-twenty positional system using dots for units and bars for fives.
Contexts: Mathematics, History
Positional and vertical: the value of a cell depends on its height in the column, so the notation is a true place-value system reached independently of the Old World.
Contexts: Mathematics, History
Counts in twenties rather than tens, which is why the second position is worth twenty and not a hundred — the commonest error made in reading a Maya number.
Contexts: Mathematics, History
Dots and horizontal bars stacked in a vertical cell: each dot one, each bar five, up to nineteen, with higher positions written in cells above.
Both are Mesoamerican base-twenty systems; this one is positional and the Aztec one additive.