The numerals are made up of three symbols; zero (egg shape), one (a dot) and five (a bar).
For example, 19 is written as four dots in a horizontal row above three horizontal lines stacked upon each other.
Digits are stacked with the higher significant digits at the top. Thus, two dots above each other would be read as 1×20 + 1 = 21.
Other than the bar and dot notation, Maya numerals can be illustrated by face type glyphs. The face glyph for a number represents the diety associated with the number. These face number glyphs were rarely used, and are mostly seen only on some of the most elaborate monumental carving.
In the calendar
In the "Long count" portion of the Maya calendar, a variation on the strictly vigesimanl numbering is used. The long count changes the second place value is not 20×20 = 400, as would be expected, but 18×20, so that one dot over two zeros signifies 360. This is supposed to be because 360 is roughly the umber of days in a year. (Some hypothesize that this was an early approximation to the number of days in the solar year, although the Maya had a quite accurate calculation of 365.2422 days for the solar year at least since the early Classic era). Subsequent place values return to base 20.
A numeral, on the other hand, is any name or symbol for that number, such as "3" or "III" or "11 (binary)" or whatever animal face is used to represent a three in Mayan carvings.
For example, a numeral "12" may have two digits, but the number 12 could be represented by numerals with other numbers of digits, or by numerals where the concept of digit is meaningless.
The numerical symbols 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0.
A numeral is a symbol or group of symbols, or a word in a natural language that represents a number.
Romannumerals remained in common use until about the 14th century, when they were replaced by Arabicnumerals (thought to have been introduced to Europe from al-Andalus, by way of Arab traders and arithmetic treatises, around the 11th century).
Since the French use capital Romannumerals to refer to the quarters of the year ('III' is the third quarter), and this has become the norm in some European standards organisation, the mixed Roman-Arabic method of recording the date has switched to lowercase Romannumerals in many circles, as '4-viii-1961'.
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