Non-power positional number representation systems, bijective numeration, and the Mesoamerican discovery of zero Rojo Garibaldi, Berenice Rangoni, Constanza González, Diego L. Cartwright, Julyan H. E. Zero Maya Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica Number representation systems Bijective numeration Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica was a fertile crescent for the development of number systems. A form of vigesimal system seems to have been present from the first Olmec civilization on wards, to which succeeding peoples made contributions. We discuss the Maya use of the representational redundancy present in their Long Count calendar, a non-power positional number representation system with multipliers 1, 20, 18 x 20, ..., 18 x 20(n). We demonstrate that the Mesoamericans did not need to invent positional notation and discover zero at the same time because they were not afraid of using a number system in which the same number can be written indifferent ways. A Long Count number system with digits from 0 to 20 is seen later to pass to one using digits 0 to 19, which leads us to propose that even earlier there may have been an initial zeroless bijective numeration system whose digits ran from 1 to 20. Mesoamerica was able to make this conceptual leap to the concept of a cardinal zero to perform arithmetic owing to a familiarity with multiple and redundant number representation systems. 2021-05-24T08:15:03Z 2021-05-24T08:15:03Z 2021-03-23 journal article Berenice Rojo-Garibaldi, Costanza Rangoni, Diego L. González, Julyan H.E. Cartwright, Non-power positional number representation systems, bijective numeration, and the Mesoamerican discovery of zero, Heliyon, Volume 7, Issue 3, 2021, e06580, ISSN 2405-8440, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06580] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/68651 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06580 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ open access Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España Elsevier