This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of human...

What’s Happening

Listen up: Flower designs on 8,000-year-old Mesopotamian pots reveal a “mathematical knowledge” perhaps developed to share land and crops, archaeologists say.

News Archaeology This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of humans doing math Flower designs on 8,000-year-old pots show “mathematical knowledge,” archaeologists say The designs of flowers on Halafian pottery made almost 8,000 years ago (some shown) show geometric sequences in the number of petals. Yosef Garfinkel By Tom Metcalfe 2 hours ago this: via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Click to on X (Opens in new window) X Click to print (Opens in new window) Print Plantlike designs on pottery made almost 8,000 years ago may be the earliest evidence yet of mathematical thinking. (and honestly, same)

Many of the flower decorations painted on pottery culture in northern Mesopotamia exhibit regular numbers of petals determined by a mathematical progression, a pair of archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem report in a recent study.

The Details

This finding, the scientists say, suggests that these people used a similar understanding for the division of land and agricultural produce. For our We summarize the week’s scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

While plants are lacking among the many ancient cave drawings made by Homo sapiens up to 46,000 years ago, plant motifs — including trees, branches, shrubs and flowers — are common in the pottery decorations of Mesopotamia’s Late Neolithic Halafian people, who lived between 6200 and 5500 B. The new study, published December 5 in the Journal of World Prehistory , catalogs all the plant motifs on Halafian pottery fragments .

Why This Matters

But it’s the flowers, Yosef Garfinkel says, that “give us an indication of mathematical knowledge. Many of the decorations on Halafian pottery (one example illustrated) depict checkerboarding and stylized plants (flowers with four petals, in this case) in geometrical patterns.

This could have implications for future research in this area.

The Bottom Line

This story is still developing, and we’ll keep you updated as more info drops.

We want to hear your thoughts on this.