Jean François Champollion Deciphering Ancient Egypt with...

Arguably one of the most important discoveries made regarding the historical and cultural study of ancient Egypt is the translation of the writing form known as hieroglyphics. This language, lost for thousands of years, formed a tantalizing challenge to a young Jean Franà §ois who committed his life to its translation. Scholars such as Sylvestre de Sacy had attempted to translate the Rosetta Stone before Champollion, but after painstaking and unfruitful work, they abandoned it (Giblin 32). Champollion’s breakthrough with hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone opened up new possibilities to study and understand ancient Egypt like never before, and modern Egyptology was born. The Rosetta Stone was found in the town of Rosetta and sent to French†¦show more content†¦Although he was able to find them, he was not able to decipher an alphabetical system that applied to the rest of the text. It seemed that the other symbols represented things, not letters. Having reached a dead end in his work, he gave up, saying, â€Å"The problem is too complicated, scientifically insoluble† (Giblin 32). A few others continued after him with the same idea of a solely alphabetical system, but they all came to the same dead end and were not able to make any progress. One of the first scholars to make any real headway on the translation was Thomas Young, a British polymath (Silet 1). Being a polymath and not understanding any of the language to begin with, Young meticulously inspected the stone, looking for recurring patterns and recording the number of times each symbol was repeated (Meyerson 123). Young knew that Ptolemys were Greek, so he assumed that the name â€Å"Ptolemaios,† spelled in the Greek style, would appear spelled the same way in the hieroglyphic section. Indeed he did find several times the cartouche containing what he believed to spell â€Å"Ptolemaios† (Giblet 40). He misunderstood a few of the symbols’ meanings, and it was later discovered that the Egyptian spelling was â€Å"Ptolmis,† but Young had taken the first major steps into translating the hieroglyphics (Giblet 41). The next step, and arguably the whole rest of the project, wasShow MoreRelatedThe Rosetta Stone By Thomas Halloran1575 Words   |  7 Pages The Rosetta Stone By Thomas Halloran The Rosetta Stone was a crucial part of deciphering hieroglyphs for mankind. The Rosetta Stone is a large piece of dark grey granite. The Stone is three feet nine inches long and two feet four inches wide. The stone approximately weighs a massive 1,680 pounds. Carved by the Egyptians in 196 B.C., the Stone contains a portion of text reflected in three scripts. One of the scripts, Hieroglyphs, had not been deciphered when the Stone was discovered. The otherRead More The Rosetta Stone Essay1011 Words   |  5 PagesThe Rosetta Stone In 1799, when Napoleon’s army was dismantling a wall in Rashid, Egypt, they discovered the Rosetta Stone. Little did they know that this 11-inch thick piece of rock would be one of the greatest discoveries in history! It contained Egyptian scripture, with Greek also on the stone. This was used to decode the once lost Egyptian writing system. Before the 1800’s, attempts at trying to uncover the secrets held by the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics found on walls inside numerousRead MoreControversial Issues in Archaelogy1011 Words   |  4 Pagesunlike their predecessors. Napoleon Bonaparte made a major step towards â€Å"scientific archaeology†. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 he brought scholars to study the ancient architecture and art. One of Napoleon’s soldiers, Jean-Franà §ois Champollion, discovered the Rosetta stone. The Rosetta stone was an important discovery because it turned out to be the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (Dow dey, 2). After this discovery, the importance of the field of archaeology was shown to the