Definition:Zero Digit/Historical Note
Historical Note on Zero Digit
The earliest use of a special symbol to be used as a placeholder for a missing denomination in a number expressed in a positional number system was in the Babylonian number system, at around $\text {300}$$\text { BCE}$.
However, the technique was not transmitted to other cultures.
The concept was reinvented by the mathematicians of the Hindu culture in the first few centuries CE.
The Bakhshali Manuscript (dated from between $\text {200}$$\text { CE}$ and $\text {1100}$$\text { CE}$) uses it, as a heavy dot.
It is also used in the Lokavibhaga of $458$, but not as a symbol as such.
Aryabhata the Elder used a positional number system around $500$, but it did not have a zero digit.
The earliest certain use of a zero digit in a positional number system appears on a stone tablet dated to $\text {876}$$\text { CE}$.
Sources
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): number system
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): number system
- 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $3$: Notations and Numbers: Indian number symbols