It's because babylonians inherited a sexagesimal counting system. Base 12 and base 60 were popular because you have twelve knuckles on the fingers of one hand and can easily index them with your thumb. You can count up to groups of six of those easily by using the five digits of your other hand. That leads to all sorts of "divine math" and sacred numbers that you see show up all over ancient things.
It's because babylonians inherited a sexagesimal counting system. Base 12 and base 60 were popular because you have twelve knuckles on the fingers of one hand and can easily index them with your thumb. You can count up to groups of six of those easily by using the five digits of your other hand. That leads to all sorts of "divine math" and sacred numbers that you see show up all over ancient things.
(post is archived)