Plantlike designs on pottery made almost 8,000 years ago may be the earliest evidence yet of mathematical thinking.
Many of the flower decorations painted on pottery by an ancient 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. This finding, the scientists say, suggests that these people used a similar understanding for the division of land and agricultural produce.
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