c. 250
Science
Mesoamerica
Maya positional zero
A vigesimal place-value system with a shell glyph for zero.
Why it mattered
Independent invention of one of mathematics' hardest abstractions.
Antiquity
250
2 recorded milestones at this point in the record.
c. 250
Science
Egypt
Diophantus and symbolic algebra
The Arithmetica posed determinate and indeterminate equations.
Why it mattered
A key ancestor of algebraic notation.
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