Pictograph, PIHK tuh graf, is picture writing. Before the development of the alphabet, many ancient peoples conveyed messages by pictographs. The Egyptians carved or painted pictographs on tombs and monuments. In addition, picture writing was a means of communication for the Aztec and for the early American Indians. Pictographs were of two kinds: those that represented objects, such as a drawing of the moon, and those that represented ideas, such as a drawing of a child with a book, to represent a student. Pictographs today may be used to show numbers or to tell a story.