Jean-François Champollion, (born December 23, 1790, Figeac, France—died March 4, 1832, Paris) French historian and linguist who founded scientific Egyptology and played a major role in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

At age 16 Champollion had already mastered six ancient Oriental languages, in addition to Latin and Greek, and delivered a paper before the academy of Grenoble, France. At 19, following studies in Paris, he became professor of history at the lycée of Grenoble (1809–16).

Deciphering hieroglyphs became his constant preoccupation In 1821–22 he started publishing papers on the hieroglyphic and hieratic elements of the Rosetta Stone, and he went on to establish an entire list of hieroglyphic signs and their Greek equivalents.

Hieroglyphic symbols may represent the objects that they depict but usually stand for particular sounds or groups of sounds. Hieroglyph, meaning “sacred carving,” is a Greek translation of the Egyptian phrase “the god’s words,” which was used at the time of the early Greek contacts with Egypt to distinguish the older hieroglyphs from the handwriting of the day (demotic)

Hieroglyphs, characters in any system of writing in which symbols represent objects (such as tools, animals, or boats) and ideas (such as motion, time, and joy). The ancient Greeks first used the term hieroglyph (meaning "sacred carving") to describe decorative characters carved on Egyptian monuments. The term is now mainly used to refer to the system of writing used by the ancient Egyptians.

DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHS  
After the fall of ancient Egyptian civilization in 30 BC, the meaning of hieroglyphs remained a mystery for about 1,800 years. Then, during the French occupation of Egypt from 1798 to 1801, a group of French soldiers and engineers uncovered a large stone now known as the Rosetta Stone. This stone bore an ancient inscription containing the same text written three different ways—in hieroglyphs, in the demotic script, and in ancient Greek. The stone was taken to Europe, where scholars translated the ancient Greek and used the information to decipher the other two texts.

USING HIEROGLYPHS  
The ancient Egyptian word for hieroglyphs, literally translated as "language of the gods," indicates their importance. Priests used hieroglyphs to write down prayers, magical texts, and texts related to life after death and worshiping the gods. When preparing their tombs, many people had autobiographies and hieroglyphic guides of the afterworld written on the surfaces of tomb walls and on the insides of coffins. The Egyptians believed that these texts helped guide the dead through the afterlife.

The use of hieroglyphic inscriptions was not limited to religious purposes. Civil officials used them to write royal documents of long-term importance, to record historical events, and to document calculations, such as the depth of the Nile River on a specific day of the year.

The Egyptians also used hieroglyphs to decorate jewelry and other luxury items. They carved the symbols into stone or wood, and incised or cast them in gold, silver, and other metals. They painted hieroglyphs on various surfaces, sometimes putting down simple figures in black ink, and other times using detail and bright colors. Occasionally artists carved semiprecious stones or rare woods into hieroglyphic shapes and then inlaid them into walls or pieces of furniture.

The Rosetta Stone Found in 1799 near the town of Rosetta (Rashid in Arabic) by French Engineers during Napoleon's occupation of Egypt. After the French surrendered Alexandria to the English in 1801, the stone became English property, and has been on display in the British Museum since 1802. The identical text is carved into the black basalt stele fragment in three scripts: (1) Hieroglyphic; (2) Demotic; and (3) Greek. The text is a decree of Egyptian priests assembled at Memphis of the goodness of 14 year-old Ptolemy V Epiphanes, who ruled from 204 to 180 BCE.

Where is Rosetta?

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