Episode

Please Don’t Eat the Halafian Daisies, or Plant Based Mathematics in Prehistory?

Podcast: This Week in the Ancient Near East
Published: Mar 23, 2026
Duration seconds: 2545
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Summary

New research suggests that the painted designs on prehistoric Halafian pottery represent mathematical reasoning. If you count all the leaves and bushes, this tracks. What kind of crazy people count the leaves and bushes? Archaeologists, that’s who.