Since the dawn of man, humans have sought out ways of communicating ideas, practices, and customs to contemporaries and future generations alike. The beginning of illustration predates written records. Pictorial iconography in the form of petroglyphs ("rock inscriptions" pecked or chiseled into a stone surface) exploded during the late paleolithic period, which lasted from 30,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.
The scribes, painters and stone cutters of ancient Egypt, 3200 B.C. to 30 B.C., were probably among the first "commercial" artists. Their visual and written language, hieroglyphics ("sacred inscriptions"), depicted religious practices, political propaganda, scientific data, and daily life.