. An introduction to the study of the Maya hieroglyphs . Fig. 47. Sign for 0 in tlie inscriptions. pensable. Indeed, any numerical system which rises to a secondorder of units requires a character which will signify, when the needarises, that no units of a certain order are involved; as zero imits andzero tens, for example, in writing 100 in our own Arabic notation. The character zero seems to have played an important part in Mayacalculations, and signs for it have been found in both the codices andthe inscriptions. The form found in the codices (fig. 46) is lenticu-lar; it presents an interio
. An introduction to the study of the Maya hieroglyphs . Fig. 47. Sign for 0 in tlie inscriptions. pensable. Indeed, any numerical system which rises to a secondorder of units requires a character which will signify, when the needarises, that no units of a certain order are involved; as zero imits andzero tens, for example, in writing 100 in our own Arabic notation. The character zero seems to have played an important part in Mayacalculations, and signs for it have been found in both the codices andthe inscriptions. The form found in the codices (fig. 46) is lenticu-lar; it presents an interior dec-oration which does not followany fixed scheme. Only avery few variants occur. Thelast one in figure 46 has clearlyas one of its elements the nor-mal form (lenticular). Theremaining two are is noteworthy, however,that these last three forms aUstand in the 2d, or uinal, placein the texts in which they occur, though whether this fact hasinfluenced their variation is unknown. Both normal forms and head variants for zero, as indeed for al
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