Evidence » course: letters, signs and symbols

I am a bit interested in ancient history, so I am curious to know where you obtained these symbols. They seem mostly to be pictographic, though some are more ideographic--or at least I can't tell what some represent.

Symbols are most interesting to me because one really has to examine the workings of the mind. For example, why did the Sumerians represent a sheep using a circle with an 'X' through it? What makes the mind lean towards an actual picture of something or what makes one see a sheep as a the strange circular symbol?

Symbols are so connected to our cultural backgrounds! Even though ancient cultures developed writing--often starting with pictographs--the differences are vast and intriguing.