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Humanity's oldest geometries, engraved on ostrich eggs
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-humanity-oldest-geometries-engraved-ostrich.htmlUniversity of Bologna
Example of tracing of a fragment (modified from Texier et al), normalization of the engraved lines, and data extraction. Credit: PLOS One (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0338509
At several archaeological sites in southern Africa, hundreds of highly unusual fragments of ostrich eggs have been found. Dating back more than 60,000 years, the shells were engraved by groups of Homo sapiens who lived in that region.
Geometric rules behind ancient engravings
A new investigation, led by researchers from the University of Bologna, has now revealed for the first time that these engravings on ostrich eggshells were not random or improvised, but followed recurring and surprisingly organized geometric rules. The study--published in the journal PLOS One--shows the presence of a genuine cognitive organization of forms, based on parallelism, orthogonality and the repetition of lines and regular patterns.
"These signs reveal a surprisingly structured, geometric way of thinking," says Silvia Ferrara, Professor at the University of Bologna's Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, who coordinated the study.
"We are talking about people who did not simply draw lines, but organized them according to recurring principles--parallelisms, grids, rotations and systematic repetitions: a visual grammar in embryo."
. . .
Geometric rules behind ancient engravings
A new investigation, led by researchers from the University of Bologna, has now revealed for the first time that these engravings on ostrich eggshells were not random or improvised, but followed recurring and surprisingly organized geometric rules. The study--published in the journal PLOS One--shows the presence of a genuine cognitive organization of forms, based on parallelism, orthogonality and the repetition of lines and regular patterns.
"These signs reveal a surprisingly structured, geometric way of thinking," says Silvia Ferrara, Professor at the University of Bologna's Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, who coordinated the study.
"We are talking about people who did not simply draw lines, but organized them according to recurring principles--parallelisms, grids, rotations and systematic repetitions: a visual grammar in embryo."
. . .