Rebus: Historical Visual Writing
Kottke.org has a small roundup of some historical examples of pictures standing in for text much the way emoji does today (for some.)
Rebus was a type of puzzle writing, and my favorite example is one Kottke cites from Lewis Carrol:
![](http://nolanhaimscreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/9148623-24196283-thumbnail1.jpg)
And let's not forget Edward Tufte's consistent pleasure in pointing out Galileo's use of pictures within his published writing.