by Brian Warhola
In 1797, a precocious 7-year-old French boy named Jean Francois Champollion
became fascinated by the culture of ancient Egypt. Champollion's father,
a bookseller, encouraged his son's scholarly interests.
Jean Francois consumed every book his father could find for him that had
anything to do with ancient Egypt. These scattered references were limited
to the works of ancient Greek and Roman writers who had described Egypt,
and to the Bible, which offered glimpses of the powerful Egyptian pharaohs.
Ironically, the Egyptians' own historical records of their civilization
could no longer be read or interpreted. The picture-writing of Egypt, called
hieroglyphic script, had not been used since the first century A.D., when
the descendents of the ancient Egyptians were converted to Christianity.
The skills of writing and reading hieroglyphics were forgotten as the last
scribes of the old religion died off. Even though the temples and pyramids
of the Nile Valley remained as evidence of a great civilization, the history
of that civilization, written in hieroglyphics, seemed to have been lost
to the modern world.
In 1798, young Jean Francois Champollion read newspapers in his father's
bookshop that brought exciting news. French general Napoleon Bonaparte had
invaded Egypt with a force of over 50,000 soldiers, sailors and marines.
The young Champollion soon became an avid reader of the Courier de l'Egypte,
a newspaper established by Napoleon to report news of the invasion back
to France.
In the autumn of 1799, Champollion read the news of the discovery of the
Rosetta Stone. Some French soldiers had found the large stone embedded in
the ruins of a makeshift wall near the town of Rosetta, on the Nile delta.
Into its polished surface was carved a series of three inscriptions: one
in classic Egyptian hieroglyphics, one in an unknown hieroglyphic-like script,
and one in Greek.
The nine-year-old provincial scholar shared in the excitement and pride
of the French discovery, realizing that it might now be possible to decipher
the Egyptian writing by comparing it directly to the easily translated Greek
inscription.
From transcripts of the Greek text, Champollion learned that the Rosetta
Stone had been carved by order of the Egyptian priesthood in 196 B.C. The
inscription praised the good works performed by the Greek king Ptolemy V,
who ruled over Egypt from 205-180 B.C. The carved stone was intended to
address both the native Egyptian population and the dominant minority led
by the Greek king.
French ownership of the Rosetta Stone ended in 1801, when Napoleon's generals
lost Egypt to an invading British Army. Having heard of the Rosetta Stone,
the British took possession of it "by the fortune of war" and
sent it to be placed on display at the British Museum in London. Fortunately,
French scholars had made prints of the stone's inscriptions and sent them
back to France.
Also in 1801, at the age of eleven, Jean Francois Champollion gained admittance
to a government-sponsored school in the French city of Grenoble, where he
studied Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syrian, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Hebrew.
Champollion amazed his professors by the ease with which he learned languages.
He also began to teach himself the modern Egyptian language, known as Coptic.
Although Coptic contained many Greek elements, it was believed to have been
derived from ancient Egyptian. On the school's campus and in its libraries,
Champollion became known by the nickname "the Egyptian."
For six years, while Champollion single-mindedly studied ancient language
and history in Grenoble, many scholars tried to decode the inscriptions
found on the Rosetta Stone. Early progress in understanding part of the
hieroglyphic text came from the frequent appearance of the royal Greek name
"Ptolemy" which could be found in corresponding sections of Greek
and Egyptian. The hieroglyphic equivalents of other common words in the
inscriptions, such as "temples," "Egypt," and "Greeks"
were soon located. In between these isolated names and words, however, there
were long passages of hieroglyphic text that did not seem to correlate with
the Greek translation in any way. As progress stalled, Jean Francois Champollion
grew determined to apply himself exclusively to solving the riddle of the
mysterious Egyptian picture-writing.
Champollion's dedication entailed a high personal price when he left the
sanctuary of school and moved to Paris at the age of 17. Because of his
extremely specialized skills and interests, as well as his youth, he was
unable to find employment, and lived in poverty in a small Paris apartment
for a year. Although his obsession brought him into contact with many of
the greatest minds in the French capital, he was barely able to survive.
"I am beside myself, and don't know where to turn next," he wrote
in desperation to his older brother. "My shoes are worn through, my
shirts are in rags. I am ashamed to appear in public, I appear so ragged."
In the libraries of the French capital Champollion continued to teach himself
the Coptic language. He also received permission to study the copies of
the Rosetta Stone inscriptions that were kept in the Louvre museum. Encouraged
in his work, he noted "Every day my Coptic dictionary is growing fatter.
The author, meanwhile, is getting thinner." By reading Coptic meanings
into the hieroglyphic pictures, Champollion gradually taught himself to
read the subtle Egyptian symbols in ways that the ancient Egyptians understood
them.
Within a passage of hieroglyphic text, for example, the drawing of an eagle
could obviously be used to stand for the word "eagle." In certain
contexts, however, the same symbol could also sometimes stand only for the
sound of the letter "A" - the first letter in the Egyptian word
for "eagle." In a third instance, the same hieroglyph might also
be read as the Egyptian word for "swift," one of the attributes
of the eagle.
Similarly, instead of using the word "king," the Egyptians sometimes
drew a series of hieroglyphics that literally meant "He of the reed
and bee," which was one of the ceremonial titles of the king. Elsewhere,
the word "pharoah," meaning "He of the Great House,"
might also be used to describe the king. Gradually, Champollion began to
knit the various meanings of these and many other Coptic Egyptian words
and phrases into an understandable system. By the end of the year, he had
managed to translate one complete row of hieroglyphic text from the Rosetta
Stone, and felt confident of the various meanings of a dozen different hieroglyphic
symbols. Aware of the risks of announcing his interpretations prematurely,
he kept the results of this work to himself.
The next year, Champollion was rescued from his life of destitute scholarship
when he was appointed professor of ancient history at the Lyceum of Grenoble.
There, he was able to continue his studies of the Egyptian hieroglyphics,
and complete his mastery of the Coptic language.
In 1814, when Champollion was twenty-four, he published some of the results
of his investigations. Egypt Under the Pharaohs was published in two volumes.
The book's popularity provided Champollion with much needed extra income
in the form of publisher's royalties.
Finally, after seven years of research, Champollion published his complete
interpretation of the hieroglyphics, based on the key passages found on
the Rosetta Stone. In 1822 he presented his results to the French Academy,
outlining his system for the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphic script.
At first, his ideas were challenged by other scholars, but as more and more
hieroglyphic inscriptions were translated using his methods, it became clear
that he had succeeded in breaking the 1,800-year silence of the hieroglyphs.
Champollion's expertise in Egyptian studies led French King Charles X to
sponsor him on a residency at the museum of Turin, Italy, where he deciphered
the many Egyptian texts and carvings collected there. Leading a joint French-Italian
expedition to Egypt in 1828-29, Champollion copied and collected hundreds
of hieroglyphic inscriptions and documents. On his return to France, Champollion
was appointed director of the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre, in Paris.
In 1831, the College de France created a special position, the Chair of
Egyptian Antiquities, in Champollion's honor.
The next year, Champollion died of a stroke at the age of forty-one.
SOURCES:
Bonaparte in Egypt. by J. Christopher Herold. London. 1962.
Egyptian Language: Easy Lessons in Egyptian Heiroglphics. by Sir E.A. Wallis
Budge. London. 1977 (reprint).
Hands on the Past: Pioneer Archaeologists Tell Their Own Story. by C.W.
Ceram. Alfred A.Knopf. 1966.
The British Museum Book of the Rosetta Stone. by Carol Andrews. 1985.
The Man Who Could Read Stones. by Alan Honour. Hawthorne Books. 1966.
OLD NEWS: 3 West Brandt Blvd. Landisville, PA 17538-1105 (717) 898-9207.