Greek numerals 

were used by Archimedes, Diophantus and others in a positional notation not very

different from the modern notation. The ancient Greeks lacked a symbol for zero until the Hellenistic
period, and they used three separate sets of symbols as digits: one set for the units place, one for
the tens place, and one for the hundreds. For the thousands place, they would reuse the symbols for
the units place, and so on. Their addition algorithm was identical to the modern method, and their
multiplication algorithm was only slightly different. Their long division algorithm was the same, and
the digit-by-digit square root algorithm, popularly used as recently as the 20th century, was known to
Archimedes (who may have invented it). He preferred it to Hero's method of successive
approximation because, once computed, a digit does not change, and the square roots of perfect
squares, such as 7485696, terminate immediately as 2736. For numbers with a fractional part, such
as 546.934, they used negative powers of 60—instead of negative powers of 10 for the fractional
part 0.934.[6]
The ancient Chinese had advanced arithmetic studies dating from the Shang Dynasty and
continuing through the Tang Dynasty, from basic numbers to advanced algebra. The ancient
Chinese used a positional notation similar to that of the Greeks. Since they also lacked a symbol
for zero, they had one set of symbols for the units place, and a second set for the tens place. For the
hundreds place, they then reused the symbols for the units place, and so on. Their symbols were
based on the ancient counting rods. The exact time where the Chinese started calculating with
positional representation is unknown, though it is known that the adoption started before 400 BC.
[7]
 The ancient Chinese were the first to meaningfully discover, understand, and apply negative
numbers. This is explained in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (Jiuzhang Suanshu), which
was written by Liu Hui dated back to 2nd century BC.
The gradual development of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system independently devised the place-
value concept and positional notation, which combined the simpler methods for computations with a
decimal base, and the use of a digit representing 0. This allowed the system to consistently
represent both large and small integers—an approach which eventually replaced all other systems.
In the early 6th century AD, the Indian mathematician Aryabhata incorporated an existing version of
this system in his work, and experimented with different notations. In the
7th century, Brahmagupta established the use of 0 as a separate number, and determined the
results for multiplication, division, addition and subtraction of zero and all other numbers—except for
the result of division by zero. His contemporary, the Syriac bishop Severus Sebokht (650 AD) said,
"Indians possess a method of calculation that no word can praise enough. Their rational system of
mathematics, or of their method of calculation. I mean the system using nine symbols." [8] The Arabs
also learned this new method and called it hesab.