Pictographs- The Early Words

Using pictographs was the first way people used to communicate. Drawing pictures that represented actions and people on walls or tablets let people tell stories of their past and their ancestors. It is through these drawings that historians have been able to deduce what life was like back before any type of printing we recognize today (pamphlets, books, letters, etc.). The activities that we did in class- the deciphering of the code and drawing our own pictographs- really gave perspective as to how people communicated, and how potentially difficult it was for them to decipher a new language. Figuring out which drawing meant what must have been incredibly hard for those first trying to learn about the peoples who used this type of communication. For the class activity where we had to decipher the phrase using pictographs, it was hard to figure out which letter went with the picture. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for historians who first had to decipher these pictographs and create the alphabet to correctly interpret messages. As an artist, I would have loved to see how people figured out how to make dyes to write on the walls or tablets, and if I had been around during that time, I would have wanted to be appointed as the chief pictographer, which may or may not have been an actual job.