The earliest “written” language would have been pictographic. Cave paintings would in time become more complex, to the point where say in the work of the native tribes of the northwest, you get complex imagery, almost mandala like composite “pictures” containing a lot of symbolic imagery in the picture of a raven, say. With native imagery, the shapes and patterns carry a deeper meaning than just trying to depict a face.

Humanity has attempted to record their visions for a very long time, but you didn’t have written language because their stories remained primarily oral. Many of the Native American petroglyphs depict characters very important to their stories and spirituality, but they don’t show the characters doing anything, and they certainly don’t track a history / story, same thing really. The closest pictures to depicting events or actions taken are really just depicting fixed scenes, like desired outcomes.

Now it would seem that abstraction would be a more modern trend, yes?

We consider abstract art to be ‘modern art.’ Well, abstract patterns date back as far as old Neanderthal cave paintings. We aren’t even certain what the set of bars was meant to depict, but some system of marks for keeping counts, or even other purposes, is almost as old as the cave pictures themselves, and certainly as old as later petroglyphs.

I remember seeing a show where they were deciphering glyphs in Mayan ruins, translating the pictures in the images. Yes, the Mayans had their own hieroglyph system and no contact with the Egyptians.

Adinkra is inspiring scientists, especially cosmologists, physicists. Indeed, even African geomancy. The patterns, they have traditionally preserved, is and still incorporates pictographic structure.

I guess in the modern age, the Chinese language is the closest thing to pictographs? Arabic too? Ah, Arabic veered away, diverted away from anything pictographic, but I will go into that in just a bit.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~