Sorry, I stand - er, sit at the computer - corrected.  Our lifestyles, and abilities to survive  have greatly improved since ancient times.  The education systems we have today are depended upon not having to spend most of the hours of our day trying to meet our immediate needs to survive.  Now we have the luxury of spending hours and hours learning material nodes and posing figures to make pretty pictures.

I'm certain it would be pretty tough to teach me pictographic writing.  I can barely manage the twenty-six letter alphabet I'm working with here ;(.

I recenly caught a show about cracking the Mayan code.  Pictographs and ancient writing forms ARE very interesting and VERY beautiful.

Best Wishes,
Rªnce

PS: cool thread, thanks dphoadley