What I find more interesting is how form follows function in this numbering system. It is the clay "writing" system of pressing a kind of wedge into the clay in a layered fashion that gave form to the numbering system as a matter of practicality from the medium. The clay dictated how to "write" the numbers, it wasn't simply a matter of a writing system that was simply recorded in the medium of clay. It is precisely why that "writing" system did not survive the transition tho papyrus or parchment. Or, in other words, it was deemed to have advantageous characteristics that were then adapted to through the numbering system.