Flower of Life on birch
Made in Italy
An overlapping circles grid is a geometric pattern of repeating, overlapping circles of equal radii in two-dimensional space. The two most common designs are based on circles centered on triangular and square lattice pattern of points.
Patterns of seven overlapping circles appear in historical artefacts from the 8th century BC onwards. They are found on a Cypro-Archaic I cup of the 8th-7th century BC in Cyprus; at the Temple of Osiris at Abydosin Ancient Egypt; and in Roman mosaics, for example at Herod's palace in the 1st century BC. The patterns are used extensively to construct girih decorations including 6- and 12-pointed stars in Islamic art. Patterns based on a square grid of overlapping circles are found in quilt design, in Ancient Egypt as noted in the 1856 book The Grammar of Ornament, and in the Hindu temple at Prambanan in Java.
