seo - Why are paginations starting with page 1?

I was wondering why every pagination is starting by page "1".

Obvious example:
< More Recent - ... | 2 | 3 | 4 | ... - Older >

In this case, the first page is displaying the latest results.
It also means that the first page is always displaying different results.
It's also like if you had a book finishing by page 1.

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Now, let's say that our page 1 represents our oldest entries.

Sample:

< More Recent - 125 | 124 | 123 | ... - Older >

In this case, the page 124 will always display the same results (unless we delete an item of course).
Page 1 will also always contain the first entries made in the database.

So my stupid question is:
why are we still using the page 1 for the more recent entries?

Reversing the order might be better for SEO, better for retrieving items based on the URL, and I might forget other good points.

Concerning the cons, I see a bad readability when we reach high numbers:
< More Recent - 1253 | 1252 | 1251 | ... - Older >

/discuss?

Answer

As far as I understand, Page 1 on pagination is not always about Latest or oldest entries. Instead, it is about the most relevant entries to your query.

The results & orders will change based on your query & it's relevance. If you select to sort the result by Latest, then page 1 will hold the latest items. If you select to sort in ascending order, then page 1 will hold the oldest items.

Thus, page 1 in pagination simply means the most relevant items that matches your query irrespective of the order.