Ancient Egyptian “Icons”

Egyptian hieroglyphs are one of the first examples of how humans have used pictures to communicate. In this way hieroglyphs can be thought of as the first icons. The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was one of the writing systems used by ancient Egyptians to represent language. They were the original form of writing out of which all other forms of writing evolved from. The Egyptians believed that writing was a gift from the gods and the Greeks believed that Egyptian hieroglyphs were sacred, which is why the word hieroglyph translates to “holy writing”.