The invention of numerals is perhaps the greatest abstraction the human mind has
ever created. Virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, or quant
ified. The story of how and where we got these numerals has for thousands of yea
rs been shrouded in mystery.
Finding Zero is an adventure-filled saga of Amir
Aczel's lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals. Aczel
has doggedly crisscrossed the ancient world, scouring dusty, moldy texts, cross
examining so-called scholars who offered wildly differing sets of facts, and ul
timately penetrating deep into a Cambodian jungle to find a definitive proof. He
re, he takes the reader along for the ride.
