Archaeologists at the University of Haifa have recently revealed that hundreds of basalt vessels unearthed in the Levant and dating to the Chalcolithic period, contain strange markings, which appear to have meant something to people at the time.

Professor Danny Rosenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology said, “there were rules, and they were not just aesthetic rules. What they were for, we don’t yet know.” The basalt bowls were labor-intensive to make, and given that pottery, which can be worked much more quickly, was also in use at the time, the researchers believe the stone vessels must have held a traditional appeal.

The University of Haifa research of the triangles will be published in an upcoming edition of the academic journal the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.