Champollion

• Jean Francois Champollion (23 Dec 1790 – 4 Mar 1832) was a French Scholar who is famous for deciphering the Egyptian Hieroglyphs. He was a child prodigy in the study of languages.
• He made his breakthrough on the 14 September 1822, aged 32, and died when he was only 41.

Rosetta Stone

• The Stone holds a text, which is a Decree issued by Ptolemy V. Raised in 196 BCE in Memphis, Egypt.
  It is written in Greek, Demotic and Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
• It was the key which enabled Jean Francois Champollion to translate the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphics had been a ‘Lost’ language since circa 400 CE.
• The Egyptian Hieroglyphic language had died out after Theodosius I passed the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE. This Edict banned all forms of religious worship in the Roman Empire, other than Nicene Christianity.

Cleopatra cartouche

• The final missing link was provided by a cartouche which bore an inscription containing the name of Queen Cleopatra in Greek and Hieroglyphs.
•  He already had the name of Ptolemy in Greek and in Hieroglyphs.
•  With the name of Cleopatra in both languages,  he was able to work out the sounds of the hieroglyphs.
• It had taken him 20 years, with the translation of Hieroglyphs finally published in 1822.