Editing Pictogram (section)

==Historical==
Early written symbols were based on pictograms (pictures which resemble what they signify) and [[ideograms]] (symbols which represent ideas). Ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese civilizations began to adapt such symbols to represent concepts, developing them into [[logogram|logographic writing systems]]. Pictograms are still in use as the main medium of written communication in some non-literate cultures in Africa, the Americas, and Oceania.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} Pictograms are often used as simple, pictorial, representational symbols by most contemporary cultures.

Pictograms can be considered an art form, or can be considered a written language and are designated as such in [[Pre-Columbian art]], [[Native American art]], Ancient [[Mesopotamia]] and [[Painting in the Americas before Colonization]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pharo|first=Lars Kirkhusmo|url=https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/25344|title=Studies in Multilingualism, Lingua Franca and Lingua Sacra|publisher=Edition Open Access Max Planck Institute for the History of Science|year=2018|isbn=9783945561133|editor-last=Braarvig|editor-first=Jens|pages=488|chapter=Multilingualism and Lingua Francae of Indigenous Civilizations of America|hdl=20.500.12657/25344 |editor-last2=Geller|editor-first2=Markham J.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ambrosino|first=Gordon|date=2018-10-20|title=Painted origins: inscribed landscape histories in the Fortaleza pictograph style during the Andean, late pre-Hispanic period|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2019.1612272|journal=World Archaeology|language=en|volume=50|issue=5|pages=804–819|doi=10.1080/00438243.2019.1612272|s2cid=198820112|issn=0043-8243|url-access=subscription}}</ref> One example of many is the [[Rock art of the Chumash people]], part of the [[:Category:Native American history of California|Native American history of California]].
In 2011, UNESCO's World Heritage List added "[[Petroglyph]] Complexes of the Mongolian Altai, Mongolia"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1382|title=Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai|publisher=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|website=WHC.UNESCO.org|date=2011}}</ref> to celebrate the importance of the pictograms engraved in rocks.

Some scientists in the field of neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology, such as [[Mario Christian Meyer]], are studying the symbolic meaning of indigenous pictographs and petroglyphs,<ref>{{cite book|url=http://unesdoc.UNESCO.org/images/0006/000678/067843F.pdf|id=ED-85/WS/65|title=Apprentissage de la langue maternelle écrite: étude sur des populations "les moins favorisées" dans une approche interdisciplinaire|first=Mario Christian|last=Meyer|date=December 1985}}</ref> aiming to create new ways of communication between native people and modern scientists to safeguard and valorize their cultural diversity.<ref>{{cite book|title=Amazon Up Close|editor-first=Pamela|editor-last=Bloom|chapter-url=http://www.pisad.bio.br/artigos/amazonupclose_outoftheforest.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317084754/http://www.pisad.bio.br/artigos/amazonupclose_outoftheforest.pdf|archive-date=2012-03-17|chapter=Out Of The Forest & Into The Lab: Amerindian Initiation Into Sacred Science|first=Mario Christian|last=Meyer}}</ref>

<gallery>
 Agawa Rock, panel VIII.jpg|[[Ojibwa]] pictographs on cliff-face at Agawa Rock, [[Lake Superior Provincial Park]] of a boat and [[Mishipeshu]], an animal with horns, painted with red ochre
 Signatures from the Past.jpg|Several prehistoric engravings can be found around [[La Silla Observatory]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Signatures from the Past|url=https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1705a/|website=ESO.org|publisher=[[European Southern Observatory]]|access-date=30 January 2017|date=30 January 2017}}</ref>
 GreatGalleryedit.jpg|[[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] pictographs from the Great Gallery, [[Horseshoe Canyon (Utah)|Horseshoe Canyon]], [[Canyonlands National Park]]
 Water,Rabbit,Deer.jpg|Water, rabbit, deer pictograms on a replica of an [[Aztec]] [[Stone of the Sun]]
</gallery>