Researchers studying ostrich eggshell engravings from southern Africa find evidence that early humans, at least around 60,000 years ago, produce recurring geometric designs using consistent rules. Analysing 112 fragments from archaeological sites in South Africa and Namibia, a team identifies repeated motifs such as grids, parallel lines, and near-right angles. The patterning suggests the engravings are not random or improvised.
The study is interpreted as indicating sophisticated cognitive abilities related to pattern recognition, spatial planning, and abstract thinking. While both sources describe the same broad findings—that the designs show organisation and repetition—ScienceDaily emphasises that people may have mentally planned entire patterns before carving. Times of India similarly points to the possibility of deliberate organisation of shapes according to rules, framing the results as clues to long-running origins of such thinking. Neither source reports evidence of schooling or classroom-like instruction; the researchers draw conclusions from the archaeological pattern regularities themselves.
