The Mayan civilisation had settled in the region of Central America from about 2000 BCE,

although the so-called Classic Period stretches from about 250 CE to 900 CE. At its peak, it was
one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world.

The importance of astronomy and calendar calculations in Mayan society required

mathematics, and the Maya constructed quite early a very sophisticated number system,
possibly more advanced than any other in the world at the time (although the dating of
developments is quite difficult).

The Mayan and other Mesoamerican cultures used a vigesimal number system based on base
20 (and, to some extent, base 5), probably originally developed from counting on fingers and
toes. The numerals consisted of only three symbols: zero, represented as a shell shape; one, a
dot; and five, a bar. Thus, addition and subtraction was a relatively simple matter of adding up
dots and bars. After the number 19, larger numbers were written in a kind of vertical place
value format using powers of 20: 1, 20, 400, 8000, 160000, etc (see image above), although in
their calendar calculations they gave the third position a value of 360 instead of 400 (higher
positions revert to multiples of 20).

The pre-classic Maya and their neighbours had independently developed the concept of zero by
at least as early as 36 BCE, and we have evidence of their working with sums up to the
hundreds of millions, and with dates so large it took several lines just to represent them.
Despite not possessing the concept of a fraction, they produced extremely accurate
astronomical observations using no instruments other than sticks, and were able to measure
the length of the solar year to a far higher degree of accuracy than that used in Europe (their
calculations produced 365.242 days, compared to the modern value of 365.242198), as well as
the length of the lunar month (their estimate was 29.5308 days, compared to the modern value
of 29.53059).

However, due to the geographical disconnect, Mayan and Mesoamerican mathematics had
absolutely no influence on Old World (European and Asian) numbering systems and
mathematics

It uses 3 basic numerals to represent any possible number: a dot for one, a horizontal bar for 5,
and a conch shell for zero.
They used the 3 symbols above to represent the numbers from 0 through 19 as shown below:

For number bigger than 19, a number is written in a vertical position so that it becomes a
vertical place value system. Initially, the base used in the Mayan numeration system was base
20 and their place values were 1, 20, 202,203, ... Then, they changed their place values to 1, 20,
20 × 18, 202 × 18, 203× 18, ... Using the base 20, 1, 20, 202,203, ..., we can write 20 as follow:

In the ones place we have 0 and in the twenties place we have 1, so the number is 0 × 1 + 1 × 20
= 0 + 20 = 20
Still using a base of 20, we can write 100 as follow:

0 × 1 + 5 × 20 = 0 + 20 = 100