Champollion and Rosetta Stone

In 1790, 227 years ago today Jean-François Champollion, one of the greatest archeologists in history was born in Figeac/France. He was the one who discovered the key to unlock the secrets of the Ancient Egyptian civilization by deciphering the famous Rosetta Stone.

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He was already catching attention in his childhood by showing his extraordinary skills. He was a self thought literate and already started to learn Latin by the age of 5. When he was 11 he shocked his teachers by translating Virgilius and Horatius and this got him admitted to "lycée" in Grenoble. There, he studied Hebrew, Arabic, Assyrian and Aramaic languages. By the age of 15, he was fluent in Coptic and Amharic. 4 years later, in 1809, he went to Paris to study Sanskrit, Chinese and Persian.

In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. On 19 July the same year, someone from his entourage found an old black basaltic stone plate 88 kilometers away from Alexandria. He was only looking for something to eat and he did not know his discovery would change the course of history. This 90 centimeter high black stone had writings on it, depicting the time of Pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes, which helped experts to date this ancient stone to 196 BC. The stone was covered with epitaphs written in Greek, hieroglyph and demotic (a phonetic format of ancient Egypt alphabet) system. 2 years later, the British soldiers chased the French out of Egypt and brought the stone to British Museum in London. Fortunately for the French, they had already copied the writings.

In 1809, Champollion, who was still in Paris started to work on Rosetta Stone texts. 13 years after he achieved to decipher the hieroglyphs. He became the first person in history to discover that hieroglyphs featured alphabetical and syllabic scripts just like pictographs. On 27 September 1822, he presented his discoveries at a special assembly in Académie des Sciences et des Arts. He published Egyptian Pantheon and A summary of the Hieroflyphic System of the Ancient Egyptians 2 years after. Finally the humanity could now read the 3,500 year old writing system of ancient Egyptians.