Mysterious Ancient ‘Triangle Code’ And Curious Markings Discovered On Vessels In Israel Reveal Something Interesting

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - What could be more fun for archaeologists and historians than trying to decipher a mysterious ancient code and strange markings? Maybe there is nothing really to decipher. These strange patterns could simply be beautiful decorations, but researchers think otherwise and say these patterns reveal something rather interesting.

Experts suggest that these puzzling markings discovered on 6,500-year-old basalt vessels may represent a super-social symbolic structure and reveal ancient trade routes.

An unusual Chalcolithic period bowl example in which the entire surface is covered with triangles. (University of Haifa excavation team)

The discovery was brought to light by Rikva Chasan, a graduate student at the University of Haifa. Using her microscope, she suddenly noticed unusual carvings on the Levant basalt vessel dated to the Chalcolithic period, circa 4,500 BCE – 3,900 BCE.

Professor Danny Rosenberg, head of the laboratory for ground stone tools research in the University of Haifa says this is an extraordinary discovery that could shed light on our ancestors’ social structure, as well as laws and rules that had to be followed.

“The basalt vessels are one lens, one view point in which we can understand the greater picture” of the Chalcolithic period, Chasan told The Times of Israel.

Professor Chasan thinks the triangular markings are in fact coordinated decorations depicting the start of a crafts specialization that crossed regional zones.

This is a show of interesting broad-strokes cultural cooperation during what is considered a smaller, more “chieftain-level of society,” in which the people were early farmers and herders.

“The basalt vessels tie it together… and unite the different communities. The consistently similar decorations provide evidence of “a shared value of the communities, which would have been very isolated from each other,” she told The Times of Israel.

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Professor Rosenberg who studied similar basalt vessels covered with strange symbols say the triangles reveal a “super-social symbolic structure” which, similar to Jewish law, set behaviors of the Chalcolithic people.

“Like in Judaism, they had rules and conventions they had to follow in terms of the symbols,” Professor Rosenberg said.

Examples of the unified Chalcolithic ‘triangle code.’ (University of Haifa excavation team)

Obviously, the artisans could have depicted other symbols and shapes — but they didn’t. “They’re all the same size, facing down, nearly always in the inside. There were rules, and they were not just aesthetic rules. What they were for, we don’t yet know.”

This means these were not merely decorated vessels put on display, and there were special regulations how they should be used.

This is the reason scientists think this peculiar triangular code shows that ancient people had rules and they were not just aesthetic rules.

Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer