Say It With Pictures

Say It With Pictures

Introduction Would you know what to do if you saw this sign? This traffic signal is easy to understand with just pictures. People have used pictures for much longer than they've used written words. Picture languages have been used to tell stories and give information. Using pictures makes messages easy to understand for many people. Two languages-Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mayan glyphs-are among the most recognizable picture languages used.

The Language of the Gods Travelers to modern Egypt find hieroglyphs everywhere. Famous ruins have many picture symbols. Tall monuments and temple walls are carved with them. That is because for almost three thousand years(3100 BCE-332cE), Egyptians believed that written language was sacred. Language was a gift from the gods. It was the ruler's duty to use this gift. Scribes working for the king, or pharaoh, had this duty. Writing was not easy. Scribes had to know over seven hundred symbols, called hieroglyphs. The sons of scribes were sent to a special " scribe school" at age six or seven to learn them. It took several years for a student to become a scribe. Young scribes had to understand how to use and place glyphs properly.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs There were two types of Egyptian hieroglyphs. One type stood for whole words, such as duck, walk, or Sun. Another type stood for sounds. They were like letters in our modern alphabet. Some glyphs stood for letter combinations, such as sh. There were twenty-four of these types of glyphs in the Egyptian writing system.

Hieroglyphic messages were written in rows or columns. They were read from right to left. The system did, however, have a special symbol for writing about the king. Symbols about the pharaoh or his family were always placed in a rectangular or oval shape. The shape stood for the flat Earth and the Sun passing over it. It showed the pharaoh's power over all.

Clay, Stone, Paper The earliest examples of hieroglyphs date back to around 3100 BcE. Tiny clay tags were carved with glyphs. Later hieroglyphs were carved into stone. These marks were used to present important news. The carvings were often made on large stone slabs called stelae. Hieroglyphs were also carved on tombs. Carving glyphs into stone was a lot of work. Eventually, scribes began using reed pens and ink to write glyphs on a special kind of paper. Writing was much easier than carving. It let scribes record information more quickly. Carved stone hieroglyphs were used less and less.