Which culture discovered the number 0 first between the Arabs and the Mayans?

I’m pretty sure the Arabs were the first to invent and, more specifically, use the number zero.

Though actually, the Arabs refined zero after the Indians invented it. I think the Indians had it earlier than the Mayans.

Ptolemy, 130 AD is believed to have been the first to use zero in the old world, when he named the meridians of the Earth “0” degrees.

The Mayans were using it well before the birth of Christ for their calender.

So, Mayans by at least 200 years.

Ptolemy’s use was a sort of innovation, but the Indians had been using a zero symbol to represent blanks on counting boards (which is the major innovation from the point of view of counting systems) before 400BC. We forget how subtle an idea zero originally was (and is). It took a long time for it to develop it’s modern uses and place in mathematics. I think the Indians still have it, but it may have been close. There’s a nice discussion of this at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_(number)#History_of_zero

I had an Indian math prof who loved telling us “The Indian contribution to mathematics is zero”

ha ha

The Maya were the first to use a zero, as has been taught now for many, many years. They had the first “real” zero usage of any ancient culture. Their great calendar system couldn’t be so amazing without zero.