The rosetta stone is a granodiorite stele inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in memphis egypt in 196 bc during the ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of king ptolemy v epiphanes the top and middle texts are in ancient egyptian using hieroglyphic and demotic scripts respectively while the bottom is in ancient greek the decree has only minor differences between the three versions. Paul fearn alamy stock photo in 1821 champollion settled in paris and began a personal quest to decipher the rosetta stone. Enter the frenchman jean francois champollion a man who had obsessively studied a wide variety of written languages since he was a boy and had become an expert in coptic the language used in the egyptian christian church.
The rosetta stone champollion and young. The hieroglyphic text on the rosetta stone contains six identical cartouches oval figures enclosing hieroglyphs. The decipherment was largely the work of thomas young of england and jean françois champollion of france.
Andrew robinson is the author of a new book on champollion cracking the egyptian code. On yovisto academic video search you can learn more about the rosetta stone and the first egyptologist jean francois champollion in andrew robinson s lecture cracking the code. At age 16 champollion had already mastered six ancient oriental languages in addition to latin and greek and delivered a paper before the.
Jean françois champollion french historian and linguist who founded scientific egyptology and played a major role in the decipherment of egyptian hieroglyphs. Yet it was not merely a question of breaking a code as a cryptographer might imagine. 23 1790 has gone down in history as the man who succeeded in deciphering hieroglyphics the ancient script of egypt on the rosetta stone and numerous other documents.
Jean françois champollion born in figeac on dec. The story has been written by jean françois champollion who devoted his life to the study of the history of egypt deciphering the rosetta stone a milestone that represented a revolution in the understanding of ancient history of egypt. Who translated the rosetta stone.
However by the age of 12. He was a child genius who wasn t fond of traditional schooling. Jean françois champollion was born to a bookseller in the town of figeac france on 23 december 1790.
Hansen march 10 2020.
Rosetta stone jean francois champollion. ʃɑ pɔljɔ also known as champollion le jeune the younger. 23 december 1790 4 march 1832 was a french scholar philologist and orientalist known primarily as the decipherer of egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of egyptology a child prodigy in philology he gave his first public paper on the decipherment of demotic in. Jean francois champollion the rosetta stone things you didn t know by.
Jean francois champollion the rosetta stone things you didn t know by. 23 december 1790 4 march 1832 was a french scholar philologist and orientalist known primarily as the decipherer of egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of egyptology a child prodigy in philology he gave his first public paper on the decipherment of demotic in. ʃɑ pɔljɔ also known as champollion le jeune the younger.
