Zero: Scientist find first use of numerical symbol was 500 years earlier than previously thought

Scientists at the University of Oxford made discovery after analysing ancient document with special technique that put date on the text

Jeff Farrell
Friday 15 September 2017 16:32 BST
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The Bakhshali manuscript has been housed in the Bodleian Library in the University of Oxford since 1902
The Bakhshali manuscript has been housed in the Bodleian Library in the University of Oxford since 1902

The earliest ever use of the zero symbol dating back to the third century was found on an ancient Indian text that has been housed in a library in Britain for more than 100 years, scientists said.

Researchers made the discovery after inspecting the scroll – known as the Bakhshali manuscript – which they say was a document used by merchants to do their sums when trading.

A team of experts in the University of Oxford applied a radiocarbon technique to three samples of the fragmentary text, with the earliest dated in the period of 224 to 383 AD.

They were “shocked” when they identified hundreds of zeroes in the fragile document – meaning they were in use some 500 years before scholars previously thought.

The manuscript was discovered by a farmer buried in a field in 1881 in the village of Bakhshali, Peshawar. The find in ancient India was made in the area now a part of Pakistan.

It was later acquired by the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where it has been housed since 1902.

Marcus du Sautoy, professor of mathematics at the university, said: “It has shocked everybody by just how early the zero is in this document.

“This isn’t some kind of theoretical text, it appears to be a practical document that has been used by merchants to do calculations.”

He added to The Guardian: “Today we take it for granted that the concept of zero is used across the globe and our whole digital world is based on nothing or something. But there was a moment when there wasn’t this number.”

The zero found in the Bakhshali manuscript did not feature it in the stand-alone way we know it today, but rather it was used as part of a set of numbers such as “101”.

“This becomes the birth of the concept of zero in its own right and this is a total revolution that happens out of India,” Mr Du Sautoy told The Guardian.

The document was written in a form of Sanskrit, which is an ancient Indian language, and Mr du Sautoy suggested it may have been used by merchants who travelled the Silk Road.

Traders made their way back and forth across the ancient route between Europe and the East to buy and sell commodities including gold and silver.

The public can view the Bakhshali manuscript when it goes on display at the Science Museum in London on October 4 as part of the exhibition ‘India: 5000 Years of Science and Innovation’.

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