this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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That's an interesting thought, but I believe it to simply be a coincidence.
The base 12 counting being based on counting the division of your fingers is historically verified, but if the division aspect was so compelling to them you'd expect it to carry forward into their writing system.
By the time you get cuneiform math though, they actually go back to base 10.
https://images.app.goo.gl/9GR6VEiT7GHYF3KaA
As you can see base 12 is not in the written system, or for written mathematics. It just was convenient for counting on their hands.
They used mixes of base 10/base 12 and base 60.
Base 10 would be used go determine the symbols for a specific "digit" in base 60.
So similar to how our 13 is 1 ten and 3 ones, their 13 was the symbol for 10 then 3 symbols for 1. 13 = ๐๐น๐น๐น But 73 would be written ๐น ๐๐น๐น๐น
Which would be interpreted as 1 sixty and 13 ones, or 60 + 13
I'ma start a revolution where we use duodecimal metric for everything, including time.
That's how we ended up with 12 months of varying length in a year and it's a mess.