Man is a social being. An important element in the development of any society is communication. Today there is an opportunity to draw information we are interested in from a wide variety of sources, be it newspapers and magazines, television and radio, or gossip told by neighbors and employees.
But how did the ancient people record information about what was happening around them, what problems worried them? It is human nature to constantly seek new ways of transmitting information. And the first step on the path to the emergence of writing was pictographic writing.
What is pictography?
Pictography is the most primitive form of graphics, a way to communicate with each other using drawings. No one knows exactly where and under what circumstances this primitive type of writing originated, however, pictographic pictures depicted on bone, wood, stone are found everywhere: North Asia, West Africa, North America. Similar drawings on rocks and in caves have survived to our time. With the help of the drawings, inscriptions were made on tombstones, information was recorded on the conditions of exchange, on military conflicts and successful hunting.
Pictography is an ancient type of writing that conveys information about objects, actions, events, concepts and their relationships using figures, diagrams, visual images, simple images. On the basis of this ancient type of writing a descriptive (drawing) letter arose.
The meaning of the word "pictography"
The word "pictography" is of Greek origin: "pictus" (pictus) - "drawing", and "grapho" (grapho) - "I write." Thus, the literal translation means "I write with drawings." Indeed, this ancient method of transmitting information uses pictures (pictograms) instead of letters and symbols.
Features of pictographic writing
Pictography is a universal way of communication. You do not need to have special knowledge or skills in order to at least approximately understand the meaning of the message encrypted in the drawings. People who speak different languages, and even do not know how to read, can equally easily understand this type of primitive painting.
The pictogram, as a rule, reports on a specific phenomenon, object or action, and sometimes on the whole complex of objects and phenomena. It is not a single sound, syllable or word. Ancient people depicted a sequence of drawings to tell about an event.
Decoding of pictographic drawings
In ancient times, pictographic writing performed a variety of functions. Since the drawings are, first of all, the flight of the author’s imagination, there were no established symbols for designating certain objects and phenomena. And at times it’s quite difficult to decipher what exactly the ancient people wanted to tell. But apparently, the individual tribes still had certain agreements regarding the designation of individual concepts. So, for example, Alaskan Eskimos left drawings near their houses that informed random guests about the presence of food in the house: a man with arms outstretched said that there was no food in the house, and a man with food brought to his mouth testified that house can feed.
To better understand what pictography is, just look at examples of cave art. This picture is about a brave man hunting deer. He holds a bow in his hands, and a quiver of arrows lies nearby.
Quite often there are images of fighting men holding axes in their hands. The people with arms crossed on their chests in many tribes designated the exchange of goods.
Pictography in the modern world
The visibility and simplicity of the transfer of any information in images allows the use of pictography in the modern world. Suffice it to recall traffic signs, where the image of a knife and fork indicates that there is a restaurant nearby, and a gas station means a gas station. Pictograms are also used in sports competitions, olympiads - for each sport a little person is drawn performing certain actions. A sign depicting a boot denotes a shoe store.
Since pictography is considered an extra-linguistic sign system, it is best suited for transmitting information that should be understood by people of different nationalities at the same time.
What does pictography mean for modern scientists? For them, pictographic painting is the science of methods for fixing primitive people objects, actions, phenomena of the world around us, which existed even before the appearance of the familiar script.
Increasingly, modern designers are resorting to the transfer of information using drawings. For a designer, pictography is the art of creating a graphic image that carries a certain information charge. With the help of only one picture (poster, logo), one can convey the meaning of both an insignificant phenomenon and the global problem of mankind.
Thus, pictography is not only the oldest pre-letter writing system, but also a method of transmitting a variety of information in the modern world.