Artifacts of the flower of life

ARTIFACTS OF THE FLOWER OF LIFE
1
MARKO MANNINEN, 2014
1 This floor mosaic with the Flower of Life symbol lays on the floor of house 1a on Curetes Street, near the
Library of Celsus in the archaeological site of Ephesus, Turkey, 100 BC [item 18].
Created: 8/29/2014 | Updated: 12/06/2014 | © Marko Manninen, 2014
http://floweroflifemystery.wordpress.com 1/32

Introduction
Reflections after the research trip
Theorizing the origins
Cow’s nose
Flower of Life
Early visible traces
At the dawn of the Common Era
1500 AC and still going strong
List of Flowers
2000 BC – 0
Golden rosettes [item 1]
Cosmetic box [item 2]
Silver goblet [item 3 a]
Silver goblet [item 3 b]
Golden goblet [item 4]
Ivory whorl [item 5]
Phoenician bowl [item 6]
Idalion cup [item 7]
Oval pyxis [item 8]
Terracotta torso [item 9]
Ivory tusk [item 10]
Ivory plague [item 11]
Bronze vessel [item 12]
Stone floor sill [item 13]
Silver beaker [item 14]
Ornament in Abydos [item 15]
Bedse cave arches [item 16]
Opus signinum [item 17]
Floor mosaic at Ephesus [item 18]
Floor mosaic in Cyprus [item 19]
Floor mosaic [item 20]
0 – 2000 AD
Broken floor mosaic [item 21]
Roman temple stele [item 22]
Floor mosaic [item 23 a]
Floor mosaic [item 23 b]
Basilica floor mosaic [item 24]
Sassanian bowl [item 25]
Wall in Syria [item 26]
Pavement [item 27]
Hampi pillar [item 28]
Cemetery decorations [item 29 a]
Sarcophagus [item 29 b]

Leonardo da Vinci’s notes [item 30]
Undated
Sixpetal
flower lunette [item 31 a]
Sixpetal
flower lunette [item 31 b]
Jewish painting [item 32]
Assyrian wall decoration [item 33]
Fu Dog Sphere [item 34]
Sikh temple marble floor [item 35]
Mosaic floor in Pompeii [item 36]
Mosaic floor in Seville [item 37]
Map of flowers
Conclusions?
References
Keywords
Credits

Introduction
In this essay I will present continuity of historical artifacts of the geometrical symbol that is
known as the "Flower of Life" in modern day. Origins of the symbol dates at least to the
beginning of the 2nd millenium BC in Mesopotamia. Intermediate knowledge of the ancient
Near East and western history of mathematics is required from the reader as well as
elementary knowledge of art, geometry and religions. Reader is also expected to know basics
of the Flower of Life geometry. I hope document will provide key sources for investigators
willing to do further research with the topic.
Reflections after the research trip
I made a six week research trip to Greece, Turkey, France and Sweden in summer 20142.
Since that I’ve been systematically collecting pictures of artifacts3 that have the Flower of Life
symbol (later called by the abbreviation FOL) printed, carved or some way presented on
them. Few websites already had a good collection of the occurrences. However, I think my
personal findings on archaeological sites and museums following exhausting research on the
Internet has brought up new, interesting facts that are not really collected in this form
anywhere else before.
Flower of Life Wiki page4 (in August 2014) assumes that one of the earliest occurrences of the
FOL is in an Assyrian carpet stone dated at around 650 BC. The Wiki page also questions the
dating of the FOL that is imprinted on the Osirian temple stone in Abydos. This occurrence
was first reported by the New Age author Drunvalo Melchizedek in his lectures in 1980’s and
1990’s and later officially in his two volume book “The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life”.
2 https://www.flickr.com/photos/74732209@N00/sets/72157646991022162/
3 http://pinterest.com/markomanninen/floweroflifehistory/
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_Life

Drunvalo is also responsible of the term “Flower of Life” (not to be confused with Fleur de lis5
or Tree of Life6 ) that is used to describe this particular geometrical figure. Due to his
background in New Age philosophy, many topics surrounding the FOL are highly
controversial. While dating of the FOL in Abydos is debated, it is evident that the symbol was
known quite widely already in 1600 – 1400 BC. We have objects from that time which show
clearly the same or similar decoration. These objects originate in Egypt Thebes [item 2],
Northern Iran Marlik [item 3], Greece Mycenae [item 1] and Cyprus [item 5].
Theorizing the origins
Cow’s nose
Mathematical practice relating to intersecting circles can be seen from
Babylonian clay tablets in 2100 – 1600 BC, although not presenting
exactly the figure of the FOL. Eleanor Robson shows on her book7 the
image of the four petal rosette or conclave square which ancient
Babylonians called apsamikkum that can be rendered as Cow’s Nose
or alternatively as Sound Hole of the Lyre8 (picture on the left and
images below9). Ceremonial vessel from Indus Valley Harappa
civilization10 2600 – 2450 BC and others11 from Harappa and
Mohenjodaro
indicates that this particular symbol was known in the Indus Valley already in
3000 BC. But because design was known "from Halaf pottery of the sixth millennium BC to
images of NeoAssyrian
textile" 12 in the Syria, it is quite certain that Cow’s Nose symbol came
somewhere from the ancient Fertile Crescent.
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleurdelis
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life
7 Mesopotamian Mathematics by Eleanor Robson, page 97
8 Sound Holes And Geometrical Figures by Bo Lawergren And O. R. Gurney, page 44
See also: Some old Babylonian geometry by Duncan J. Melville
9 1st image is from LACMA, 2nd image usage is permitted by Dakshayini, 3rd image by Ismoon
10 http://collections.lacma.org/node/174070
11 http://www.pinterest.com/markomanninen/cowsnose/
12 The apsamikku in NeoBabylonian
Mathematics by Eleanor Robson, page 214

Flower of Life
The FOL symbol instead is basically produced by six intersecting
circles around the seventh central circle forming a hexagon on the
crossing points. It is even easier to draw with a plain drafting
compass or dividers than Cow’s Nose since you continue forming
the pattern only from the crossing points. In Cow’s Nose pattern
you need to find straight lines and right angles as well. This can
be verified by doing both figures manually. On the right is a
computer generated version of the Flower of Life pattern13.
Outside of the scope of the essay, but intriguingly enough: if sound holes of the lyre or harp
are called apsamikkum like Lawergren & Gurney in the “Sound Holes And Geometrical
Figures”14 points, actual shapes of the holes resemble more like equilateral triangles of the
FOL than concave squares or rectangles in some cases. It could rather be that apsamikkum
refers to the hole, window and frame of the figure, not the exact shape of it. If the FOL symbol
had any particular name for ancients, I leave it for future speculations.
Practice from clay tablets (IM 5291615, Susu16, MS 305117) shows equilateral triangle and
hexagon calculations with the square root of 3 approximations. These arithmetic and
geometric properties are fundamental in the FOL. In addition, sexagecimal place value
system was already known in the 3rd millenium BC. Geometrical link between circle, hexagon
and sexagecimal system is genuinely demonstrated by Jaime Vladimir18. Yet the Sumerian
brown stone cylinder seal with two sixpetal
rosettes19 originates from 3000 BC. Actually
similar seals20 can repeatedly be found from the late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr period (3100 2900
BC).
13 Made with GeoGebra: http://www.geogebra.org/cms/en/
14 Sound Holes And Geometrical Figures by Bo Lawergren And O. R. Gurney, plate X.
15 http://math.berkeley.edu/~lpachter/128a/Babylonian_sqrt2.pdf
16 http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/data1/upload/insa/INSA_2/20005a5d_1.pdf
17 A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts by Joran Friberg
18 Geometrical link between sexagesimal and circle
19 christies.com
20 Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection (page 177) by Beatrice Teissier

The pillar cone mosaic from the ancient
Sumerian city, Uruk in 3400 – 3100 BC21 ,
shows a tessellation pattern in the temple
pillars. 60 degrees zigzag
rhombus or
lozenge pattern formed from two equilateral
triangles is inside the FOL geometry. Those
who want to go deeper to the triangle study
should read “Mysteries of the equilateral
triangle”22 by B.J. McCartin.
We can pretty safely conclude that already in 2000 BC people on ancient Mesopotamia were
playing with construction elements and pattern we find in the FOL. On the other hand,
conclusion based strictly on artifacts is that four (or eight) pointed flowers and rosettes were
more prominent, widely known and only later six pointed stars and petals both came to
decoration motifs and deeper mathematical interest. Still, Assyrian ornament [item 32] in the
museum of Pergamo can stretch the origin of the FOL further, even to 3000 BC, if my request
to the museum to give more information about the ornaments gets any attention and dating
can be confirmed.
Early visible traces
Most of the artifacts from 1400 BC to 500 BC are found from an area that is nowadays Syria,
Iraq and Iran. Political situation, illegal trade of the antiquities that has been continuing for the
last two hundred years23, immature web technologies on museum websites and many other
things in Near East makes the whole FOL topic really hard subject to research. There are just
a few scholarly works that refer to the FOL, often with an association to the sixpetal
rosette
figure. Anyway, at some point this geometrical motif arrived from mainland to Cyprus (being a
cult site of Aphrodite), Samos and Miletos (both being birthplaces of famous mathematicians,
namely Pythagoras and Thales). This can be read from the history of the Greek vases24
(pages 4757)
by B.B. Shefton:
“...it presents us with a rosette motif that, while it is not often found in Greek art, has a
story to it of considerable interest, one that has only partially been explored by
previous investigators... the net pattern first half of ninth century BC ... from Samaria
are the earliest ones known to me, if indeed their early date can still be maintained…
Earliest occurrence known to me is on the underside of a Middle Geometric Attic pyxis
from the Kerameikos, that is to say some time in the second quarter of the eighth
century...”
21 Reconstruction of a Uruk facade in the Vorderasiatischen Museum
22 http://www.mhikari.
com/mccartin2.
pdf
23 D.T. Potts: A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, chapter 6.
24 http://d2aohiyo3d3idm.cloudfront.net/publications/virtuallibrary/0892361506.pdf

Greeks, however, didn’t use the motif in its full extent, but were mostly interested in its
sixpetal
rosette form. It is still notable that golden plates having a sixpetal
rosette decoration
comes from Greece Mycenae [item 1] as early as 1600 BC and an ivory whorl [item 5] from
Cyprus (1300 1100
BC) which Shefton didn’t mention. Shefton also didn’t mention anything
about earlier dating goblets from Marlik [item 3] or about a wooden lid from Egypt [item 2].
Phoenicians in Nimrud around 700 BC decorated ivory items like pyxis [item 8], elephant tusk
[item 10] and plaque [item 11] with the FOL symbol. Use of the symbol is very natural as they
stayed right in the center of Levant, ie. half way from Egyptian kingdom to Mesopotamia,
where all major trade of goods, skills and knowledge was made for thousands of years. Stone
door sills [item 13] having a decoration drawn with a compass and giving the effect of flowers
with six petals (continuous FOL pattern) are from King Ashurbanipal temple in Nineveh, 645
BC. Assyrian Carpets in Stone by Pauline Albenda (1978) lists several similar 25 stone carpets
from Nimrud, but also she seems to be unaware of Marlik culture goblets or Egyptian
existence of the ornament.
Oldest instance of the FOL that I have found in the Asia is from Maharashtra, India, 200 – 100
BC [item 16]. It is an arch decoration from the Buddhist Bedse caves. It is also mentioned that
decoration motifs around the cave is similar to GrecoAssyrian
style26. Newer instances
comprise of Chinese LionDog
sculptures [item 34] and a marble floor decoration in a Sikh
temple [item 35].
At the dawn of the Common Era
One interesting thing is that the FOL symbol was extensively used by Jews, Greeks and
Romans around the dawn of the new era, 100 BC – 200 AD [items 18, 19, 20 and 21].
Especially mosaic floors pop up from the history using this theme often next to the Cow’s
25 https://www.jtsa.edu/Documents/pagedocs/JANES/1978%2010/Albenda10.pdf
26 http://cavesofbedse.blogspot.fi/

Nose decoration motif. Decorations in the temples of Herod and the religious center of
Ephesus are one of the most beautiful and complete forms of the FOL. Intriguing question
about the influence and usage of the symbol comes by its mathematical properties. This
would warrant a separate article: were early Christians, Gnostics, middle Platonists and
Neopythagoreans aware of the FOL? How about writers of the Gospels and the book of
Revelation, did they know the meaning of it? Without going any deeper into the subject, it
must be mentioned that Roman imperium was spread up to Thrace in 180 AD leaving behind
a few floor mosaics with the FOL symbol [item 24]. These can nowadays be witnessed in the
excavated sites in Bulgaria and Italy [item 36], also in Spain [items 17 and 37] and France
[items 23a and 23b].
If I would really need to guess the origin of the geographical area, where the FOL was first
used in its fullest magnitude, my bet would be on upper Mesopotamia. So rich is the tradition
of using geometrical forms, especially usage of the six petal rosette and tradition has lasted
long. Item 26 shows the painting of the wall (729 AD) in Syria desert which origin is highly
interesting and urges deeper research. Wall is full of symbols of the FOL in different forms
resembling figure settings in Abydos wall and on the other hand notes of Leonardo da Vinci.
1500 AC and still going strong
Much later geometrical patterns were used in the Arabic culture as an art itself. This is due to
the fact that in their tradition God, prophets or even people and animals were not allowed to
be drawn. For example, Ottomans used the FOL on cemetery works, sarcophagi and tombs
[items 29a and 29b]. Orthodox christians in Patmos island applied sacred geometry above the
chapel door lunette [item 31a and 31b], thus appreciating the symbology behind the
intersecting circles. You can see more complex figure on the lunette only when zooming in to
the image, which just adds tickling enigma around the symbol. Multicolor opaque glass
“Cosmati” pavement in the Westminster Abbey Gothic church [item 27] has the symbol. It is
well known that Vesica Piscis (ladder of a fish) is the basis of the FOL 27 geometry and used
widely on iconography though in the Orthodox tradition it is rather called a mandorla28
(almond) or a nimbus. The FOL tradition can easily go to the beginning of the Christian church
and it can also be traced far to the history before that, as it is possible to see now.
At this point is is good to lift up once more the speciality of the symbol and at the same time
its undiscovered history. Serçe Limani in his Shipwreck book
lists several lead net sinkers
that has the six petal rosette symbol on them and writes:
"regardless of its purpose, the rosette, rare among the Jewish remains of Greece and
Rome, is a particularly eastern Jewish phenomenon... rosettes, used as ornament
27 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesica_piscis
28 http://orthodoxwiki.org/Mandorla

details on fifthand
sixth century churches, were a particularly eastern Christian
phenomenon as well, being peculiar to northern Syria." 29
So simple is the formation that E.R. Goodenough, the author of the monumental
thirteenvolume
work about the Jewish and Christian symbolism calls it “the most banal of all
designs” as quoted by Limani. Neither Goodenough and Limani knows hardly anything about
the FOL in its full pattern, or its six petal rosette form from much much older history like
golden plates in Mycenae [item 1].
Finally, my historic survey ends at around 1500 AD, when Leonardo da Vinci used several
pages on his sketchbook [item 30] to investigate the properties of the hexagonal net / grid
when he studied the theory of lunes30. He was interested in the proportions of such a grid
which can be found from nature, for example bumble bee cells, turtle’s carapace and
snowflakes. The theory of lunes, ie. geometric figures formed by the intersection of two
circular arcs, was invented by the Greek mathematician Hippocrates of Chios in 440 BC31.
Both Leonardo and Hippocrates were doing this to unveil the ancient “squaring the circle”
enigma, which also is a topic worth another article.
29 Serçe Limani: An EleventhCentury
Shipwreck Vol. 1, page 405.
30 Wolfram Science, page 872, note d
31 Frank J. Swetz, 1994

List of Flowers
I have collected the following list of the FOL artifacts and ordered them by time from the
oldest to the newest, undated items to the end of the list. I hope this list will help further
investigators to find out more details of the objects, their origin and history that could reveal
more about the history of the FOL itself. On picture descriptions I will tell shortly where objects
can be found, their dating and sometimes other additional notes, links and references. It is
very probable that more objects will be found in future. Approximately half a million clay
tablets has been excavated from the Near East so far. Reading, cataloging and interpreting
them is still considered to be in child steps. Many times more tablets are supposed to hide
under the ground. Same applies to treasures in Egypt. Maybe thousands of relating objects
are in private collections around the world waiting to see the daylight in uncertain future.
Many, maybe most of the museums doesn’t have online picture collections of the objects. So
only when individuals and researchers has this particular subject on their mind, they may pay
attention to the FOL geometry in the artifacts. For example the goblet in the
Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm [item 14] was found only, when I realised week earlier that
the FOL can be seen from the bottom or underside of the object. So when I saw attracting
silver object in the museum glass vitrine, my first thing to do was to peek inside it. It was truly
amazing to see the perfect FOL appearing there right under my eyes.

2000 BC – 0
Golden rosettes [item 1] Cosmetic box [item 2]
Golden sixpetal
rosettes in the
archaeological museum of Istanbul.
Mycenae, Greece, 1600 BC. (Photo credit:
Marko Manninen)
A circular wooden cosmetic box with a
swivel lid in the The Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York . Thebes, 32 Egypt, 1492 –
1473 BC. Note resembling 12 petal rosette
in the ivory box 1550 BC33 and 32 ray
straight line star from the same period34.
(Photo credit: MET)
32 http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/thecollectiononline/
search/548960
33 http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/thecollectiononline/
search/547031
34 http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4050/Circular_Cosmetic_Container_with_Lid

Silver goblet [item 3 a] Silver goblet [item 3 b]
A silver goblet in the museum of Louvre . Underside of the object was unreachable 35 for the
visitors because the goblet stands on thick basement. But picture in the object description
shows a full Flower of Life pattern in the bottom, very much similar to the silver goblet
underside decoration in Stockholm [item 14]. Unfortunately only very little is known about the
Marlik culture36, but artifacts found from the royal cemetery shows excellence in the gold and
silver metalwork. Marlik, northern Iran, 1400 – 1100 BC. (Photo credit: Marko Manninen)
Golden goblet [item 4] Ivory whorl [item 5]
35 http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=22115&langue=fr
36 http://dooroodiran.blogspot.fi/2004/04/marlikculture.
html

Underside of a golden goblet in the museum
of Louvre . Excavation 37 report38 shows
several artifacts having similar sixpetal
rosettes with surrounding petals under the
goblets and beakers. Marlik, Iran, 1400 –
1100 BC. (© 1985 Photo RMN / Pierre et
Maurice Chuzeville)
An ivory whorl as seen in the British
Museum. Cyprus, Greece, 1340 – 1050 BC.
Note how peripheral petals are roughly
made probably by a hand. This is a good
example how much precise work it takes to
draw the whole FOL pattern after the first
seven simple circles.
Phoenician bowl [item 6] Idalion cup [item 7]
A phoenician bowl in the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art. 850 BC.
A cup with mythological scenes and flower
of life pattern in the bottom visible in the
Louvre museum. Idalion, Cyprus, 800 – 700
BC. (Photo credit: Public Domain39)
37 http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=22111
38 Marlik: the complete excavation report. v. 2: Illustrations
39 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cup_Idalion_Louvre_N3454.jpg

Oval pyxis [item 8] Terracotta torso [item 9]
An oval pyxis with a base and a lid in the
Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Nimrud, 800 – 700
BC. Note the object 40 IM79513 that has
similar, but badly cracked lid with the same
geometric figure. (Photo source & credit: G.
Herrmann & S. Laidlaw: Ivories from Nimrud
VI)
A cypriot terracotta torso in the British
Museum. Salamis, Greece, 700 BC. (Photo
source & credit: B.B. Shefton: Greek vases)
Ivory tusk [item 10] Ivory plague [item 11]
A carved ivory tusk in the Iraq Museum,
Baghdad. Nimrud, 800 – 700 BC.41 (Photo
A fragment of an ivory plaque in the Iraq
Museum, Baghdad. Nimrud, 800 – 700 BC.42
40 G. Herrmann: Ivories from Nimrud VI, IM79514
41 G. Herrmann: Ivories from Nimrud VI, IM79508
42 G. Herrmann: Ivories from Nimrud VI, ND782

source & credit: G. Herrmann & S. Laidlaw:
Ivories from Nimrud VI)
(Photo source & credit: G. Herrmann & S.
Laidlaw: Ivories from Nimrud VI)
Bronze vessel [item 12] Stone floor sill [item 13]
A bronze vessel from the palace of
Sennacherib. New York public library. Iraq,
Nimrud, 700 BC. (Photo source & credit:
NYPL Digital Library)
A stone floor sill with a field of interlocking
circles decoration from the palace of King
Ashurbanipal. Visible in the Museum of
Louvre . Related objects are 43 also visible in
the British Museum44 . The northern Iraq, 645
BC. (Photo credit: Marko Manninen)
43 Sally 1 Wing
44 BM 118910, BM 118913

Silver beaker [item 14] Ornament in Abydos [item 15]
An ancient Near East silver beaker bottom
motif 600 – 500 BC. Object is in the Swedish
Medelhavsmuseet . Kind 45 staff from the
museum also gave me this information: "The
archived accession catalogue gives that it
was received in 1980, probably through a
certain O. Engkvist. There is also a
comment in the margin: Prob Archaemenid,
acc. To Vincent Pigott (Iran in the Near
East), Prof pennsylvania, USA. Personal
communication". (Photo credit: Ove
Kaneberg)
An ornament found at the stone slab in the
Temple of Osiris. Claimed to have origins
from 3000 BC (or even much older), but
critical analysis gives dates from 400 BC –
200 BC to even after 1900 AD. Abydos,
Egypt. (Photo credit: Ray Flowers)
45 http://collections.smvk.se/carlottamhm/
web/object/3400108

Bedse cave arches [item 16] Opus signinum [item 17]
Chaitya arches in form of wood lattice
patterns, floral patterns, bermrail
arches
and a parapet with Assyrian pattern of a row
of stepped triangles in the Buddhist temple
of Pitalkhora. Maharashtra, India, 200 – 100
BC. (Photo credit: Vivek S. Kale)
Opus signinum (mosaic floor) of the Roman
period house in the “city of charity”,
Caminreal. Spain, 200 BC – 100 BC. (Photo
source and credit: Jalme D.V. Redon46)
Floor mosaic at Ephesus [item 18] Floor mosaic in Cyprus [item 19]
Floor mosaic that lays on the house 1a on Mosaic floor ornament of late Hellenistic
46 http://www.xiloca.com/data/Bases%20datos/Xiloca/245.pdf

the Curetes Street, near the Library of
Celsus in the archaeological site of
Ephesus, Turkey, 100 BC.
(Photo credit: Ken & Nyetta47)
period at Roman agora, the archaeological
site of Kourion in Cyprus. 75 50
BC. (Photo
credit: Andrew Sweeney)
Floor mosaic [item 20]
Floor mosaic in the bathhouse at Lower
Herodium built by Herod the Great,
unearthed and visible at the National
Museum of Israel. Israel, 20 BC. (© Shmuel
Browns, used with permission48 )
47 https://flic.kr/p/btf4nU, Creative Commons license
48 http://israeltourguide.
info/2010/07/25/romanbathhouseherodium/

0 – 2000 AD
Broken floor mosaic [item 21] Roman temple stele [item 22]
Broken floor mosaic of pomegranates, fig
leaves & geometrical pattern of circles on
the reception room in the Western Palace
built by Herod the Great. Masada, Israel,
30BC 70AC.
(Photo credit: James Emery49)
A stele from the Roman temple ruins.
Córdoba, Spain, 100 500
AC. (Photo
credit: Steve Pope)
Floor mosaic [item 23 a] Floor mosaic [item 23 b]
49 https://flic.kr/p/MaC6K

Geometrical motifs in the mosaics visible in the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology.
Besancon, France, GalloRoman
Period 123 BC 486
AD. (Photo credit 23b: heroesbed. 23a
© Pierre Dupont, Inrap)
Basilica floor mosaic [item 24] Sassanian bowl [item 25]
A mosaic floor from the basilica in the town
near to Yambol. Kabile, Bulgaria, 400 AD.
(Photo source: http://bulstack.com/)
A Sassanian parcelgilt
silver inscribed bowl.
400 – 500 AD.
Wall in Syria [item 26] Pavement [item 27]
About 100 kilometers west of Deir azZor
on
the Euphrates river in the Syrian desert is
the Ummayad hunting château and wall
paintings resembling much like the drawings
of the Leonardo da Vinci. Qasr alHair
ashSharqi,
729 AD.
A multicolor opaque glass “Cosmati”
pavement in the Westminster Abbey Gothic
church. London, England, 1268 AD.
(Copyright: Dean and Chapter of
Westminster)

Hampi pillar [item 28]
The Flower of Life symbol in the pillar in the
Hampi temple. India, 1400 AD. (Photo credit:
Wm Jas50)
Cemetery decorations [item 29 a] Sarcophagus [item 29 b]
Ottoman cemetery headstone and sarcophagus decorations from the antique field of ancient
Smyrna. Izmir, Turkey, 1400 AD. (Photo credit: Marko Manninen)
Leonardo da Vinci’s notes [item 30]
50 https://flic.kr/p/4rWG5E

Leonardo Da Vinci’s explorations of the
hexagonal geometry on his notebooks, 307
verso. Italy, 1500 AD. (Photo credit: Public
Domain51)
51
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Leonardo_da_Vinci_%E2%80%93_Codex_Atlanticus_f
olio_307v.jpg

Undated
Six-petal flower lunette [item 31 a] Six-petal flower lunette [item 31 b]
A sixpetal
flower lunette above the door of the Orthodox chapel (left side). More complex
pattern of the intersecting circles can be seen on both sides of the center circle when picture
is zoomed in (right side). Patmos, Chora, Greece. Undated. (Photo credit: Marko Manninen)
Jewish painting [item 32] Assyrian wall decoration [item 33]
A Jewish painting that has a Hebrew
inscription around the circle of the Flower of
Life. Undated.
Presumably Assyrian wall decoration in the
Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Undated. (©
Sanjin Đumišić, used with permission52)
52 http://sanjindumisic.com/sumerpergamonmuseuminberlin/

Fu Dog Sphere [item 34] Sikh temple marble floor [item 35]
An earth sphere under the Fu (Buddha/Lion)
male dog, common defender statue on the
houses and temples in the Ming and Qing
dynasties. In the picture is one of the stone
lions guarding the Jing'An Temple in
Shanghai, China. Undated. (© Tyson Amick,
used with permission53)
A Sikh temple marble floor decoration.
Amritsar, India. Undated.
Mosaic floor in Pompeii [item 36] Mosaic floor in Seville [item 37]
Mosaic floor in the House of Tragic Poet as Mosaic in the Archeological Museum of
53 http://www.travelpod.com/travelblog/
nonlinear/3/tpod.html

House of Glaucus. Italy, Pompeii. Undated. Seville, Spain. Undated. (Photo credit:
Rafael del Pino54)
54 https://www.flickr.com/photos/rafael_dp/5092555796/in/faves48694711@
N03/

Map of flowers
The map below shows the places where the collected artifacts were found as well as their
assumed dating:
Interactive map can be seen from:
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/embed?mid=zbWecF_iw3HU.kwdoxVUPtuAo

Conclusions?
It is far too early to do any firm specific conclusions of the FOL symbol. Dating of the symbol
is hard as it is usual when trying to trace ancient inventions. Often we can talk only in
accuracy of thousands years, rather than hundreds. But it is clear that history of the FOL goes
further than many expects. It makes sense that sixpetal
rosette came first preceding
rhombus, triangle and zigzag
patterns which themselves goes to the neolithic periods and
beyond. But how long it took to develop from six rayed rosettes to the continuous flower
pattern? We do need classifications to group different types of the pattern, to distinguish the
development of the symbol from simple parts to the complex form.
Other interesting questions are the development of the drafting compass (or its simple fixed
variation called divider or caliper), accuracy and skills of using tools that were required to
construct the pattern. Quite often it is believed that Egyptians didn't possess the compass,
that they were mere rope stretchers . In contrast to this we can see oldest 55 objects in the
current survey coming from Egypt indeed! Anyone can make own conclusions if those lid
carvings [item 2] were made with a help of a rope or more accurate fixed or adjustable
compass with sharp and durable endpoints. Museum object descriptions are pro to a
compass. However following this line to get more information about the FOL is kind of a dead
end because history of the compass in behalf of artifacts can be traced to the around 600 BC
only. Are we thus forced to follow a more intuitive path and face the old Greek myth of Perdix,
who was assumed to invent a pair of compasses and a saw?56 Legend tells that a zigzag
figured saw was made from the spine of a fish.
As it is with dating, it is with locating. Where did sophisticated sense of the geometric forms
develop to such a degree that the FOL was in ability of human mind ready to be created? We
shouldn’t forget that for example design of the Samarra period dishes are truly amazing while
they go as far as 7500 years back to the history. See these plates and bowls for example:
57
55 L.R. Shelby: Medieval Masons’ Tools, page 237
56 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdix_%28mythology%29
57 1. photo © Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2. photo © Oriental Institute, 3. photo © Dbachmann

What was the meaning of the FOL then? It is unlikely that the name and the meaning was
carried out from millenium to millenium and through different cultures unchanged and same.
Sometimes symbol was probably used as an interesting decoration and ornament, pleasing
and exciting on the eye of an artisan, maybe without any specific name. Sometimes it appears
clearly on a religious context. Later, when I'm struggling more with the mathematical and
geometrical properties of the FOL, I will present possible meanings and names attached to
the symbol.

References
● Drunvalo Melchizedek: The ancient secret of the Flower of Life, Vol. 1&2 (1999 &
2000)
● Eleanor Robson: Mesopotamian mathematics (1999)
● Eleanor Robson: The apsamikku in NeoBabylonian
Mathematics (2007)
● Joran Friberg: A remarkable collection of Babylonian mathematical texts (2007)
● Duncan J. Melville: Some old Babylonian geometry (2005)
● B.J. McCartin: Mysteries of the equilateral triangle (2010)
● B.B. Shefton: Greek vases (1989)
● Pauline Albenda: Assyrian carpets in stone (1978)
● Stephen Wolfram: A new kind of science (2002)
● Serçe Limani: An EleventhCentury
Shipwreck Vol. 1, The Ship and Its Anchorage,
Crew, and Passenger (2004)
● E.R. Goodenough: Jewish Symbols in the Greco Roman, Vol. 5 & 7 (1958)
● D.T. Potts: A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (2012)
● Georgina Herrmann, Stuart Laidlaw: Ivories from Nimrud VI (2008)
● Beatrice Teissier: Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection
(1984)

Keywords
This list of the keywords and combinations of them can be used to search more information
about the FOL and related topics on libraries and search engines:
flower of life, sixpetal
rosette, six rayed star, six spoked wheel, rosette, apsamikku(m),
conclave square, square root of 3, intersecting circles, hexagon, equilateral triangle, rhombus,
vesica piscis, goblet, beaker, pyxis, cosmetic lid, ivory, mosaic, cylinder seal, sacred
geometry.

Credits
I want to respect all image copyright holders and works made by numerous artists and
authors. Without their work it would impossible to present the continuity of the FOL symbol by
its various appearances in any satisfactory ways. Most of the images has been published with
Creative Commons license so it was straightforward to use those images on this essay. I
have published all my own photos with the same license believing that it is the only way to
keep creative work and research hassle free and enjoyable for everyone. Few items [32, 35]
have untraceable sources, because they have been used internet widely without reference to
the original work. I hope that someone who sees them here and knows the source will kindly
contact me, so that I can attach credit line to the images. Then few items [5, 6, 25, 26, 36]
have restricted terms of use why I cannot present pictures directly on my essay, so I have put
links to the original works.

Artifacts of the flower of life

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Artifacts of the flower of life