We get the strictly positional numeral system from the Indians. But base 10 was also used by people in various other places and some earlier (Greeks, Minoans, E

We get the strictly positional numeral system from the Indians. But base 10 was also used by people in various other places and some earlier (Greeks, Minoans, Egyptians, Romans, Semites, Chinese, ...) The source for most (all?) base ten systems was almost certainly finger counting, though I'm not sure how useful archaeological / linguistic evidence is about this in many cases.