GoKawiilGoKawiil explains how researchers could detect zero in ancient number systems
A recent analysis explores how someone deciphering an unknown ancient counting system could tell whether it used a positional base (like base 5 or base 20) or a 'bijective' base lacking a zero symbol, similar to Excel's column-labeling scheme. The piece argues that without contextual clues—like knowing what number a symbol represents—distinguishing these systems from raw symbol frequency alone would require enormous sample sizes, though tools like Benford's Law could help identify leading digits in large enough datasets.