Two simple ideas I attribute to a pre-mathematical thought in this respect
1= The closed line (more or less a circle), and the idea of a boundary, of an inside and outside with its many derivations in life strikes me as a very ancient concept with very deep implications on thought, culture and society.
At the same time this idea is still fruitful in contemporary mathematics with homology, limits, inequalities, etc. as well as in our society.
2= The line as a path, a track, linked with time, that one follows, step by step, joining a start and an end exactly for the same reasons as above, with multiple current incarnations in today mathematics.
