The pattern grows in rings: six more circles are arranged around one circle, making seven; the next ring brings the total to nineteen, then thirty-seven. The familiar depiction shows nineteen circles inside an enclosing circle; between the arcs, blossoms with six petals appear.
The oldest known patterns of overlapping circles date from the first millennium BC, among them the threshold of an Assyrian palace in Dur-Sharrukin in present-day Iraq. Leonardo da Vinci studied the proportions of the pattern in his sketches. The name “Flower of Life” is more recent. It comes from books of the 20th century.
