Petroglyphs:

My little Niece, Debbie, casts doubt that people read facebook posts that do not contain pictures.

Actually, those of us who still write things do so with the idea that it's for people who are still capable of reading. There's ample evidence that an increasing number of facebook participants are reverting back to where we came from several thousand years ago.

Part of the evidence is in those annoying emojis jumping around your cursor when you try to use the screen. Add to that the easy transfer of imagery from the phone cameras and there is very little need for anyone to ever actually engage the brain to convey thoughts.

So, it would appear, we are reverting to a form of pictographs--something like what the Egyptians used and the origins of oriental calligraphy. All of that, of course, evolved from the petroglyphs. That is the way our ancestors recorded their thinking back before they discovered that the rocks they were using may contain metals.

Petroglyphs can be viewed and photographed along the shores of some of the lakes joined by the Trent-Severn canal system in northern Ontario. They are evidence that our stone-age ancestors experienced enough periods of security to allow them to carve images in sandstone and slate slabs using quartz, flint and granite tools.

Who, among our ancestors, would ever have dreamed that someday, in the dim future, their descendants will return to that form of communication?