Cave Paintings 

are the earliest images created by human beings.

Pictographs 

are simple picture-symbols used to communicate a concept or idea.

Petroglyphs

are picture symbols scratched or carved into rock.

Cuneiform

is an early form of wriitng from Sumeria.

Scribes pressed into clay tablets with a wooden stylus.

Cylinder Seal

A small bead which was rolled onto clay to create an impression.

Used to identify the author (scribe).

Hieroglyphs

are pictographs used to express language in Ancient Egypt.

Cartouche

• Hieroglyphs surrounded by an oval usually used to express names.
• Can be read from any direction indicated by a line at one end of the oval.

Frontality

is a convention of Egyptian Art.

• Figures are presented from the point of view most easily recognized by the viewer.

Registers

are horizontal bands

which organize the design space.

A convention of Egyptian art.

The Rosetta Stone

is an engraved stone which was

the key to "unlocking" hieroglyphic writing.

An Alphabet

is the symbols which create a wring system.

The term comes from the Greek letters 

Alpha and Beta.

The Phaistos Disk 

was from ancient Crete.

One of the earliest examples of a writing system.

Greek

Be able to visually identify this distinctive alphabet.

Serif, Ascender, Descender

Visually identify the parts of Roman letter forms.

Capitals Monumentalis

A Roman letter form which was carved onto buildings and monuments.

(Visually identify its characteristics)

Capitalis Quadrata

This Roman SQUARE lettering was carefully done and found on official documents.

Capitalis Rustica

This less formal Roman letterform was used in everyday writing.

Aramaic

This writing system was is the ancestor of both Hebrew and Arabic alphabets.

Hangul

This Korean alphabet is among the most recently developed.

It is meant to replicate the position of the mouth and tongue as sounds are formed.

Writing

Writing is a method of human intercommunication by means of arbitrary visual marks forming a system.