Entoptic phenomena (archaeology)

Okay kiddo, imagine you are inside a dark cave with a flashlight in your hand. When you shine the flashlight on the cave wall, you see different shapes and figures made by the light. Similarly, when people in the past looked at certain things, they saw shapes and patterns inside their eyes, which we call "entoptic phenomena".

These shapes and patterns could be things like dots, lines, zigzags or circles that people saw in their vision. They were not real shapes, but rather something that the eye or the brain creates.

Archaeologists study these shapes because they are often found in ancient art and symbols. People in the past saw these shapes and included them in their art, so analyzing entoptic phenomena can help archaeologists understand the cultural and religious beliefs of different ancient civilizations.

So entoptic phenomena, while it may sound like a big fancy word, is really just seeing shapes and patterns in your vision that can tell us a lot about how people in the past thought and saw the world around them.