The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the

mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide
spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments have come to light
only in a few locales.
In the beginning, the root of the term mathematics is in the Greek word mathemata,
which was used quite generally in early writings to indicate any subject of instruction or study.
the number sense is not the ability to count, but the ability to recognize that something has
changes in a small collection. The earliest and most immediate technique for visibly expressing
the idea of number is tallying. Counts were maintained by making scratches on stones, by
cutting notches in wooden sticks or pieces of bone, or by tying knots in strings of different
colors or lengths. In the New World, the number string is best illustrated by the knotted cords,
called quipus, of the Incas of Peru. The Mayan calendar year was composed of 365 days divided
into 18 months of 20 days each, with a residual period of 5 days. This led to the adoption of a
counting system based on 20 (a vigesimal system). Near the beginning of the dynastic age
hieroglyphic system of writing is a picture script, in which each character represents a concrete
object. With the introduction of papyrus, Papyrus was made by cutting thin lengthwise strips of
the stem of the reedlike papyrus plant. Hieratic writing is child’s play compared with demotic,
which at its worst consists of row upon row of agitated commas, each representing a totally
different sign. In both of these writing forms, numerical representation was still additive, based
on powers of 10. Besides the Egyptian, another culture of antiquity that exerted a marked in
hence on the development of mathematics was the Babylonian. Here the term “Babylonian” is
used without chronological restrictions to refer to those peoples who, many thousands of years
ago, occupied the alluvial plain between the twin rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The
Greeks called this land Mesopotamia meaning the land between the rivers. Shortly after 3000
B.C., the Babylonians developed a system of writing from pictographs, a kind of picture writing
much like hieroglyphics. Cuneiform script was a natural consequence of the choice of clay as a
writing medium. Babylonian mathematics was far more highly developed than had hitherto
been imagined The Babylonian scale of enumeration was not decimal, but sexagesimal (60 as a
base). The Rhind Papyrus was written in hieratic script (a cursive form of hieroglyphics better
adapted to the use of pen and ink). The Rhind Papyrus starts with a bold premise and contains
several completion problems. The Rosetta Stone is made up of three panels, each inscribed in a
different type of writing: Greek down the bottom third, demotic script of Egyptian (a form
developed from hieratic) in the middle, and ancient hieroglyphic in the broken upper third.
(David M. Burton, 2011).

Therefore, in any society development is related to the evolution of mathematical

advances. Math has advanced historically to help us make meaning in ways that language
cannot. Mathematics doesn't operate in isolation but as a part of discovery and it gives
meaning to the world. As a student, it helps us develop a deeper understanding of the
mathematics we have already studied by seeing how it was developed over time and in various
places.