This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of humans doing math

Archaeologists examining 8,000-year-old pottery from northern Mesopotamia's Halafian people discovered flower designs with petals following a mathematical pattern based on powers of two. Among 375 pottery fragments with flower motifs, nearly all featured 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 petals in geometric progression, suggesting these ancient people understood mathematical concepts for dividing land and crops. This discovery represents the earliest known evidence of mathematical thinking, predating the Sumerians' base-60 system by over 1,500 years.