what they mean

Thanks to all who played along and tried to guess what these things were:

Michelle (a missionary in South Korea), who said she was taking a "LONG shot" guessed the answer to what they mean very well!!  They are based on a foreign language, but not Greek like Crystal (a friend from college now living in the UK) thought. 

But, they are two different symbols inspired by an ancient form of Chinese calligraphy called the seal script, which is closer to what Claire (a Taiwanese woman living in Canada) elluded to.

As you probably know the 2008 summer Olympics are going to be held in China.  For each Olympics, the hosting country gets to create the pictograms for the sports.  Earlier this month, they announced what the seals for the olympics are going to look like.

The two pictograms above represent diving and judo--just two of the thirty-five pictograms that "integrate [the] pictographic charm of inscriptions on bones and bronze objects in ancient China with [the] simplified embodiment of modern graphics." 

Fun, right?  I just love them.  Here are some more:

See all 35, more about them, and pictograms from previous Olympics here.

Comments

[Malissa]

aha! I wouldn't have even been close!

[Deb]

Hi Amanda, I saw your original post yesterday before I left for the day and had only figured out one of them so I didn't post a guess. The first one I had no clue, but now that you've said it's for diving, yes, I can picture it. The second one I actually got right! I thought it looked like wrestling, karate, or judo.

That was a fun post! It made us more aware of your country and how they are thinking! I enjoyed seeing more of the symbols, too! Thanks!

[Michelle]

WOW! I can't believe I got it right! That was a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing...very interesting!

[joyce]

ohh that's very creative and cool of the Chinese there preparing for the Beijing Olympics.