Jean-Franzois Champollion French Egyptologist who was the first to decipher hieroglyphs Date of Birth: 23.12.1790 Country: France

Biography of Jean-François Champollion

Jean-François Champollion was a French Egyptologist who was the first to decipher hieroglyphs. He studied oriental languages in Paris under the guidance of Sylvester de Sacy from 1807 to 1809. He dedicated his scientific career entirely to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1809, Champollion became a history professor in Grenoble. However, due to his support for Napoleon, he was exiled from 1815 to 1817 and subsequently lost his position in the official academic world.

On September 27, 1822, Champollion presented his famous "Lettre a M.Dacier," which contained the first keys to deciphering hieroglyphic writing. In 1824, he went to Turin to study the Drovetti collection acquired by the government of Sardinia. He acquired the so-called Anastasi collection in Livorno for the Louvre, and then visited Florence, Rome, and Naples.

Champollion, together with his outstanding student and follower, the Italian Ippolito Rosellini, organized the Franco-Tuscan expedition that worked in Egypt from 1829 to 1830. In 1830, he became a member of the French Academy, and in 1831, he headed the first chair of Egyptology created specifically for him at the Collège de France.

Champollion began his research on deciphering the texts of the Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799 during Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, and the texts on the red granite obelisk found on the island of Philae in 1815. On the Rosetta Stone, the same text was inscribed three times: in hieroglyphs, demotic script, and Greek. This text mentioned the favors bestowed on the priesthood by Ptolemy V (who reigned from 205 to 182 BC), and the Greek name Ptolemaios was easily recognized in the hieroglyphic inscription as it was enclosed in a cartouche, a sign familiar to anyone who has ever seen Egyptian obelisks.

The obelisk from the island of Philae is bilingual, consisting of hieroglyphic and Greek inscriptions. The Greek text contains a plea addressed to King Ptolemy, his wife Cleopatra, and his sister, also named Cleopatra. All these names were enclosed in cartouches, and one of them, "Ptolemy," was the same as on the Rosetta Stone. In the Greek language, the names "Ptolemy" and "Cleopatra" have four common letters (p, t, o, and l). These letters were indeed found in the expected positions (i.e. p in the first position in the name Ptolemy and in the fifth position in the name Cleopatra; similarly, l in the fourth position in "Ptolemy" and in the second position in "Cleopatra"). After this, it was easy to decipher the remaining signs. Other names of Greek and Roman reigning figures, also enclosed in cartouches, allowed the number of known letters to increase. Among them are names like Alexander, Philip, Arsinoe, Berenice, Caesar, Tiberius Caesar, Gaius Caesar Germanicus, Claudius Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Titus Aelius Hadrian, and Aurelius Antoninus. The meaning of the remaining signs was established or confirmed using the Coptic, a late Egyptian dialect.

Champollion's achievements went beyond the decipherment of hieroglyphs. He discovered the distinction between proper ideograms and their accompanying phonetic elements, established linguistic connections between ancient Egyptian and Coptic languages, compiled a list of basic grammatical and lexical elements of the Egyptian language, and made significant progress in translating monolingual ancient Egyptian texts.