This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of humans doing math

This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of humans doing math Flower designs on 8,000-year-old pots show “mathematical knowledge,” archaeologists say https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-pottery-math-earliest-evidence?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=ecb5ae8ac9-nature-briefing-daily-20260116&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-50432164 Flowers hint at maths before numerals Pottery made by people of the Halafian culture, who inhabited northern Mesopotamia between around 6200 and 5500 BC, is painted with flowers that have 4, 8, 16 or 32 petals, and some show arrangements of 64 flowers. These patterns show a clear understanding of symmetry and spatial division long before written numbers came into use around 3400 BC, argue scientists in a new study. The skill might have helped the Halafian people with tasks such as sharing harvests or dividing communal fields, the authors say.