On a set of broken clay bowls from northern Mesopotamia, delicate flower patterns have turned out to be something far more radical than decoration. New analysis of this ancient art suggests that early ...

This discovery, researchers noted, contributes to “ethnomathematics,” a field that explores mathematics through culture.

Long before anyone wrote down a number, early villagers were painting flowers with a precision that looks suspiciously like ...

Halafian pottery shows that early agricultural societies practiced advanced mathematical thinking through plant-based art long before writing.