M. Jean-Francois Champollion presented his work on the decoding of the Rosetta Stone, exactly 200 years ago today! The carved messages on the stone were in 3 ancient languages, 2 Egyptian and one Greek. Champollion’s translation was a momentous accomplishment.

The message was banal, but the system of decoding it meant that carvings all over Egypt could now unfold their secrets. Before this discovery, ancient languages and peoples were poorly understood, if at all.

M. Champollion was French and the Stone itself was in London in the British Museum. Linguists everywhere, as well as historians and archaeologists were crazed by this progress. For his work, M. Champollion is known as the Father of Egyptology.

Well worth reading about, say We Rhinos.