"Hieroglyphs" refer to the characters made by graphical figures, be it animals, objects, or concepts.

The characters that are relatively old seem to originate from Sumer or Elam in Mesopotamia. The hieroglyphs that were originally used for recording agricultural products and handicrafts led to the birth of linear and cuneiform script, widely used by the Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians. 5000 years ago, Ancient Egyptians had started to use other Hieroglyphs in a separate way. The features that are visually well arranged about heavenly bodies, natural phenomena, animals and plants, God, humans, residences and households were used for 3000 years for recording Egyptian. Ancient Greeks called this system Hieroglyphs, literally "sacred writings", because it was mainly used by religious functionaries who doubled as government bureaucrats.