Every ancient culture that left traces of knowledge in their art knew it. Basic shapes compose the fundamental geometry of the universe. We can take credit for a lot of things, but human beings did not invent geometric shapes. We discovered them through the observation of nature. Understanding basic shapes and their functions have taught us to mark time and space in a variety of ways, inspiring mathematics, technology, language, and ever-evolving civilization. A handful of simple shapes have been used throughout time in the art of all cultures: the circle, intersecting lines, the triangle, the square, and the spiral. Cultural anthropologist Angeles Arian researched and documented commonalities in cultural art forms over several decades and found consistent geometric shapes embedded in all art. We called them the “five universal shapes.”