Happy (late) Anniversary to the deciphering of Egyptian Hieroglyphs πΉππͺ! Seeing the Rosetta Stone in person was a dream come true for me! When I saw the Rosetta Stone all I could thing was βthis rock is the reason I can read hieroglyphsβ and I was just in awe.Β
Jean-FranΓ§ois Champollion was just a teenager in September 1822 when he began to decipher hieroglyphs πΉππͺ based off of the Rosetta Stone!
The Rosetta Stone is actually a decree issued by priests πΉππͺ in 196 B.C.E. that affirmed the cult of Ptolemy V πͺππ―ππππ΄. Identical decrees were supposed to be placed in every temple πππ in Egypt ππ ππ!
During the Christian period in Egypt ππ ππ, the use of hieroglyphs πΉππͺ began to wane and finally disappeared at the beginning of the 4th Century. The Rosetta Stone contains three πΌ languages ππ¦: Hieroglyphs πΉππͺ, Greek and Demotic. Since Greek was a known language ππΊ, scholars began to try to use the Greek section of the Rosetta Stone to translate the portion in hieroglyphs πΉππͺ.
Thomas Young was the first person to show that the name ππ in the cartouche (πͺππ―ππππ΄) actually spelled out βPtolemy,β however, Champollion gets the credit for deciphering hieroglyphs πΉππͺ because he showed that the phonetic symbols were also used for Egyptian ππππ names πππ¦ and not just foreign names πππ¦. With his extensive knowledge of Coptic, Champollion was able to begin reading the hieroglyphs πΉππͺ more fully!Β
I am thankful for the early works of scholars like Champollion because I would not be reading hieroglyphs πΉππͺ without it! The work that these people did to further the understanding of the Egyptian language, and thus the civilization as a whole is nothing short of incredible!
This is my personal photograph and original text. DO NOT repost.