Quite possibly the only ancient number system left in use today are the Roman Numerals. Most people know nothing about where they originated from though. Until this class, I didn’t either. Shepherds in Italy would use tally sticks, which were made out of bone or wood, and were used to mnemonic learning purposes, and more importantly to keep track of debts. The debts would be made on a piece of bone or wood on both sides of it which would then be split in half, and the debtor and creditor would each have part for their records. These tally marks were heavy influencers of roman numerals.
The I, which represents 1, does not come from the letter, but from one of the notches on the stick. When you reached the fifth notch on a tally stick you would make a double cut like a ‘V’, which happens to represent 5, and the tenth notch was a cross notch like an “x” which represents 10! This pattern continues throughout the stick. For example, the number 21 would look like this IIIIVIIIIXIIIIVIIIIXI on a counting stick, and then like this as a Roman Numeral XXI.
One thing that most people don’t know is that the four in roman numerals has two correct ways to be written. It can be written as IIII, or, IV. On most analog clocks, you will see it written not as IV, which most people are taught, but as IIII. Even more strange, is the fact that the nine is written subtractively as IX. There are many theories as to why this happened, but the two most credible are that in the early history of Rome, the god Jupiter’s name was written IVPPITER beginning with IV so it was more common to see IIII used. The other major theory is that Louis XIV, the king of France, preferred IIII to IV, so he demanded that clocks were produced with the IIII and that is simply the way it has stayed.
So, while most mathematical and economical practices are done with Hindu-Arabic numbers now, what do we use them for today? One of the most common places to see them in use is in affiliation with rulers of monarchies and with popes. You will also see them used in major sporting events, or recurring major events. The Olympic games and the super bowl are two examples of their use.
