In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system.The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC;the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero.This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide,although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system.The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD.In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation,and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until its use was extinguished by the Spanish.