How would you know whether an ancient culture had zero?

A few weeks ago I wrote about the number system used in labeling spreadsheet columns. Labels run from A through Z, then AA through AZ, etc. This looks a lot like base 26, but it’s not quite the same. It has no analog of zero. If Z were like zero, Y would be followed by […] The post How would you know whether an ancient culture had zero? first appeared on John D. Cook .