He Read the Unread

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IMAGINE if the code to hieroglyphics had never been discovered! Mankind would have missed out on a huge chunk of history. The World of ancient Egypt would have been buried for all time, but for one determined Frenchman, Jean-Francois Champolllion (1790 – 1832). Champollion was a French classical scholar, philologist and orientalist, decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Born in Figeac in southern France, Champollion was educated by his older brother, Jacques. Champollion had the brains for languages while Jacques was street smart and knew how to make a living. At age nine, Champollion was sent to join Jacques at Academie de Grenoble.

They studied together, and under the influence of Joseph Fourier, Champollion started to indulge in the ancient languages of the east, Egypt in particular. At just 19, he was appointed assistant professor of history at the academy. By the age of 20, Champollion had already mastered dozens of languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Amharic, Sanskrit, Avestan, Pahlavi, Arabic, Chaldean, Persian and Ge’ez. He then published his work in two volumes entitled L’Egypte sous les Pharaons (Egypt under the Pharaohs).

His keen interest in the Coptic language (an Afro-asiatic language of Egypt) rewarded him with the task of deciphering the writing on the Rosetta Stone in 1882. The discovery was monumental as it showed the Egyptian writing system was a combination of phonetic and ideographic signs. Not long after that, he published anbother masterpiece entitled Precis du Systeme Hieroglyphique (Precise System of Hieroglyphics) and this led the way to the birth of modern Egyptology. Champollion had discovered a method to read the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics by identifying the relationship between hieroglyphic and non-hieroglyphic scripts.

In 1827, he was approached by Ippolito Rosellini – an Italian, keen to learn and master Champollion’s methods. They both decided to go on an expedition to Egypt and to validate their discoveries. Rossellini was the Italian equivalent to Champollion and they both became good friends.

Funded by the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, and the King of France, Charles X, the Franco-Tuscan Expedition set sail in 1827 with four members. They studied many monuments and make great discoveries. He result of the expedition was Monuments de l’Egypte et de la Nubie. However the expedition was set upon by thieves.

When he returned to Paris in 1831, a professorship in Egyptian history and archaeology was specially created for him. Champollion died in March 1832 as a result of a stroke, while preparing the results of his expedition for publication.