Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion - Egyptologist | French historian and linguist History

Jean-François ChampollionEgyptologists

Facts from Egyptologists, the life history of the most important French Pharaonic Egyptian Monuments, the achievements of Jean-François Champollion in discovering the symbols of the Rosetta Stone, the Ancient Egyptian Languagehieroglyphs” in the Pharaonic civilization of Egypt, and more..

Jean François Champollion was born on December 23, 1790 and died on March 4, 1832.)

He was an academic scientist and at the same time a French philologist and orientalist. He was famous for his great ability to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphic language, and at the same time he was famous for being one of the most important founders of the archaeological foundations for the study of the history of the Pharaonic civilization “Ancient Egypt History“..

Jean-François Champollion Facts

In 1820, Champollion embarked on a project to decipher hieroglyphics, which was soon overshadowed by the achievements of British polymath Thomas Young, who had made the first advances in decryption before 1819. In 1822, he published his first achievement in deciphering Rosetta Stone hieroglyphs..

In 1824, he published a brief book detailing the decoding of hieroglyphics. In 1829, he traveled to Egypt where he was able to read many hieroglyphic texts that had not been studied before. He died in Paris in 1832, aged 41. The grammar of the ancient Egyptian language was published after his death.

Champollion announced before the Egyptian Academy on 2/27/1822 that he had been able to decipher hieroglyphics through the Rosetta Stone, which was written in the demotic script that was common in the Hellenistic era in the civilization of Ancient Egypt, which was the last stage of ancient Egyptian writing (hieroglyphics, hieratic, demotic).).

There are those who believe, today, that Champollion’s knowledge of Ibn Wahshiyya al-Nabati’s book (Shawq al-Mustham fī Knowledge of the Symbols of the Pens), which contains a decoding of some of the symbols of Egyptian writing, helped him do this, in addition to his knowledge of Coptic writing in the Coptic period, which is Greek and contains six ancient Egyptian letters, also helped him..

The Rosetta Stone was a stone tablet dating back to the eighth year of the reign of Ptolemy V (205-182) BC. It was found in the Rosetta region, west of the Nile River Delta, the most famous Egypt Archaeological Sites.

It contained a single text written in Demotic and Greek hieroglyphics. Champollion realized that the name’s pronunciation does not change in the three writings.

Therefore, he traced the symbols of the names of (King Ptolemy IPtolemaic Kingdom I) in the Rosetta Stone and Queen Cleopatra VII in the Phili Obelisks, and began to decipher the letters and syllables..

Champollion put his subsequent discoveries in the book (Ancient Egyptian Grammar), (Dictionary and Principles of the Hieroglyphic Writing System), and (Monument of Egypt and Nubia).).

 

His upbringing and life since childhood

Champollion, an Egyptologist, had excelled in the science and field of linguistics since his childhood and childhood, as he had presented his first and most important research papers that were published at that time on how to decipher the symbols that were written in the Demotic language, which was written in 1806 AD..

He also succeeded in holding a large number of the most important honorary positions in his youth, those positions that were famous in scientific circles, and then he was very capable of succeeding in speaking both the Coptic languages ​​and then the Arabic language with great fluency..

Not only that, but the Egyptologist Champollion had lived at a certain time due to a set of political unrest that had arisen in France, which had also caused the disruption of the research that Champollion was conducting in various ways..

Also, during the periods of the Napoleonic Wars, the scientist Champollion M was able to avoid entering into the rule of compulsory conscription, which the country had been subjected to, but unfortunately, his loyalty to Napoleonicism at that time had already made him fashionably suspect by the subsequent monarchy..

 

How did he manage to enter Egyptology and archaeology?

In fact, at the beginning of the nineteenth century AD, a great and great state of obsession with Egyptology and Egyptian antiquities had prevailed around the entire world, especially in French circles, of course after the results returned by the scientific mission that had at that time accompanied the soldiers of the French campaign. On Egypt.

This committee was the one that established and succeeded in shedding a great deal of light on the Rosetta Stone, that ancient Pharaonic stone that was written in approximately three languages..

Many of the Egyptian and French people also believed that this ancient hieroglyphic writing was only used in the past in a number of the most important rituals and among the most important sacred matters..

Therefore, despite this, their symbols are indeed symbols that cannot be read or even require effort to be deciphered.

This is one of their most permissible beliefs because it is linked to a number of esoteric or philosophical ideas.

Accordingly, the great importance that arose from deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphic language lies in the fact that it was able to show that this ancient hypothesis made by researchers is a very wrong hypothesis..

Hence, it prompted many to start extracting a large number of the most important information that had already been written down by the ancient Egyptians..

 

Champollion’s interest in Egyptian history

Egyptologist Champollion’s interest in studying ancient Egyptian Pharaonic history, especially knowledge of the hieroglyphic text, had appeared during early periods of his life..

At the age of sixteen, he was able to give a scientific lecture on Egyptian Pharaonic history in front of the Grenoble Academy..

He also succeeded in arguing that this rich language spoken in ancient times by the Egyptians or the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs kings, through which they wrote all those archaeological hieroglyphic texts, was a language closely related to the Coptic language..

Note: Facts and secrets of the history will be added soon…

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Jean-François Champollion - Egyptologist | French historian and linguist History
Jean-François Champollion – Egyptologist | French historian and linguist History

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Tamer Ahmed
Eng. Tamer Ahmed | Researcher in Ancient Egypt History and Egyptology. Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, 2004 Tourism and E-marketing Expert I love Egypt and I strive to develop tourism. Booking Your Tours Online Whatsapp: +201112596434