Arabic numerals
The first mentions of the numerals in the West are found in the "Codex Vigilanus" of 976.
Ethnomathematics
The following is a sampling of some of the definitions of ethnomathematics proposed between 1985 and 2006:Some of the systems for representing numbers in previous and present cultures are well known. Roman numerals use a few letters of the alphabet to represent numbers up to the thousands, but are not intended for arbitrarily large numbers and can only represent positive integers. Arabic numerals are a family of systems, originating in India and passing to medieval Islamic civilization, then to Europe, and now standard in global culture—and having undergone many curious changes with time and geography—can represent arbitrarily large numbers and have been adapted to negative numbers, fractions, and real numbers.