"From cave paintings in Africa, Asia and Oceania, to the emergence of sophisticated graphic styles in Europe at the turn of the century, these images stimulate curiosity and wonder at the enormous breadth of human creativity."--BOOK JACKET.

Unlock the lost and hidden meanings of the world's ancient and modern signs and symbols with the latest in the hugely popular series of 'Element Encyclopedias'. This is the biggest A-Z reference book on symbolic objects you'll ever find.

The book is the first comprehensive encyclopedia of Western ideograms ever published, unique in its search systems, that allows the reader to locate a symbol by defining just four of its visual characteristics. It is about our graphic cultural heritage as expressed in subway graffiti, fighter jets' signs and emergency exit symbols. It contains 2,300 symbols, 1,600 articles and streamlined reference functions. Ideogram scarved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men 25,000 years ago, put on modern household appliances by their manufacturers or sprayed on walls by political activists, are all presented in dictionary form for easy reference. Symbols cover current designs used in advertising, logotyping, architecture, design, decoration, religion, politics and astrology.

Contains definitions and interpretations of over 1,600 signs and symbols and discusses the cross-cultural, sociological, and psychological uses, meaning, and development of signs and symbols as a whole.

An alphabetical reference with more than 1,500 entries that trace symbols to their cultural, religious, or mythological origins, and explain the hidden or encoded meaning that lies concealed beneath objects' and concepts' ordinary, outward appearance.

This informative and engaging illustrated reference provides the stories behind 1,001 signs and symbols, from ancient hieroglyphs to modern-day political and subculture symbols. What in the world does Ω mean? And what about its meaning might have led my coffee date to tattoo it on his entire forearm? Where did the symbol ∞ originate, and what was its first meaning? How did the ampersand symbol & come about and how was it applied daily in book publishing? And what is the full story behind that staring eye on top of the pyramid on our American dollar bill? This comprehensive guide to signs and symbols explains. Find within: More than 1,000 illustrations An extensive collection of written and cultural symbols, including animals, instruments, stones, shapes, numbers, colors, plants, food, parts of the body, religious and astrological symbols, emojis, and gestures Historical facts culled from a wide variety of sources Learn all about the signs and symbols that surround us and their part in our rich world history.

Mind, body, spirit.