Who of the scientists was able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs? How did you solve the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics?

Ancient civilizations possessed unique and mysterious knowledge, many of which were lost over time or carried to the grave by the owners themselves. One of these mysteries was the Egyptian hieroglyphs. People were eager to unravel their mystery, desecrating the tomb for the tomb. But only one person managed to do this. So, which of the scientists was able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs?

What it is?

The ancient Egyptians believed that hieroglyphs are the words of God. They say, point and keep silent. That is, they had three purposes: writing and reading, expressing thoughts, a way of transferring secrets between generations.

In the Middle Kingdom, more than seven hundred characters were included in the Egyptian alphabet. Hieroglyphs had many meanings. One sign could carry a variety of meanings.

In addition, there were special hieroglyphs that were used by the priests. They enclosed voluminous mental forms.

In those days, hieroglyphs were much more important than modern letters. They attributed magical power.

Rosetta Stone

In the summer of 1799 in Egypt there was an expedition of Napoleon. While digging trenches in the vicinity of the city of Rosetta, a large stone covered with mysterious characters was dug from the ground.

Its upper part was broken off. On it were preserved hieroglyphs, located in fourteen lines. And they were knocked from left to right, which is not typical for oriental languages.

The middle part of the surface of the stone contained 32 lines of hieroglyphs, knocked from right to left. They are preserved most fully.

On the lower part of the stone letters were written in Greek. They settled down in 54 lines, but they were not completely preserved, because the corner was broken off from the stone.

The officers of Napoleon realized that they had made an important discovery. The Greek letters were immediately translated. They narrated about the decision of the priests to put a statue of the ruler of Egypt, the Greek Ptolemy Epiphanes, near the statue of the deity. And appoint the days of his birth and ascension to the throne as temple holidays. Next was the text that this inscription is repeated with the sacred hieroglyphics of Egypt and demonic signs. It is known that Ptolemy Epifan ruled in 196 BC. E. No one else could translate the letters.

The stone was placed in the Egyptian Institute, which was founded by Napoleon in Cairo. But the English fleet defeated the French army and strengthened itself in Egypt. The mysterious stone was transferred to the British National Museum.

The mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs interested scientists around the world. But it was not so easy to find her clue.

Chapmolon from Grenoble

In December 1790, Jacques-Francois Champollion was born. He grew up a very smart boy, he loved spending time with a book in his hand. In five years he independently studied the alphabet and learned to read. At the age of 9 he was fluent in Latin and Greek.

The boy had an older brother, Joseph, passionately fond of Egyptology. Once the brothers were visiting the prefect, where they saw a collection of Egyptian papyri, written with mysterious signs. At that moment Champollion decided that he would reveal the secret of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

At age 13, he began to study Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Coptic and Sanskrit. During his studies at the Lyceum Francois wrote a study on Egypt of the Pharaohs, which produced a furore.

Then the boy had a period of long studies and hard work. He saw a copy of the Rosetta stone, which was poorly executed. To disassemble each character, it was necessary to peer intently into it.

In 1809, Champollion became a professor of history at the University of Grenoble. But during the reign of the Bourbons he was banished from him. In difficult years for the scientist, he worked on the solution of the Rosetta stone.

He realized that the hieroglyphics are three times larger than the words in the Greek letters. Then Champollion visited the idea that they are the likeness of letters. In the course of further work, he realized that the Egyptian alphabet contained hieroglyphs of three kinds.

The first kind is the symbols that were carved on the stone. They were depicted as large and clear, with a thorough artistic depiction.

The second type is the hieratic signs, which are the same hieroglyphics, but not so clearly depicted. This writing was used on papyrus and limestone.

The third type is the Coptic alphabet, consisting of 24 Greek letters and 7 letters, consonant with the sounds of a demonic letter.

Tips from antiquity

Determining the types of Egyptian writing, helped the scientist in his future work. But it took him years to determine the correspondence of hieratic and demonic hieroglyphics.

From the inscription in Greek, he knew the place where the name of Ptolemy Epifan, which in the Egyptian language sounded like Ptolemayos, was knocked out. He found signs in the middle part of the stone corresponding to him. Then he replaced them with hieroglyphics and found the resulting symbols on the top of the stone. He guessed that the ancient Egyptians often missed vowel sounds, hence the name of the pharaoh should sound different - Ptolmis.

In the winter of 1822, Champollion received another subject with inscriptions in Greek and Egyptian. He easily read the name of Queen Cleopatra in the Greek part and found the corresponding signs in the writings of Ancient Egypt.

Similarly, he wrote other names - Tiberius, Germanicus, Alexander and Domitian. But he was amazed that among them there are no Egyptian names. Then he decided that these were the names of foreign rulers, and phonetic signs were not used for pharaohs.

In September 1822, the scientist received copies of inscriptions from the walls of the temple of Ramses II. Contrary to his conviction not to use phonetic signs, he tried to unravel the name on the inscription. So, the symbol after the symbol, he got R-e-m-s-c. If you add the vowels, you will get Ramses. He was amazed at this fact. Deciding in this manner to read further, he received the One, Thutmose. Gradually the dead symbols came to life.

It was an incredible discovery. The Egyptian script was sound!

The scientist hurried to his brother to announce his discovery. But, shouting: "I found!", I lost consciousness. For almost a week he lay down.

In late September, Champollion reported his incredible discovery of the French Academy of Sciences. About the wars and victories of the pharaohs, about the life of people, about the country, Egyptian hieroglyphs told. Deciphering opened a new stage in Egyptology.

The last years of Champollion's life

Champollion - one of the scientists who was able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs, did not stop there. He went to Italy for new materials, because in this country many Egyptian documents were kept.

Returning from Italy, the scientist released a work describing the grammar of the language of Ancient Egypt, containing Egyptian hieroglyphs, the decipherment of which became a matter of his life.

In 1822, Champollion led an expedition to the country of the pyramids. This was his old dream. He was struck by the grandeur of the temple of Hatshepsut, Dender and Sakkar. The inscriptions depicted on their walls, he read with ease.

Returning from Egypt, the scientist was elected to the French Academy. He received universal recognition. But he did not enjoy the glory for very long. The only scientist who was able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs, died in March 1832. Say goodbye to him thousands of people. He was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

Egyptian alphabet

A year after the death of the scientist, his brother published the latest works containing Egyptian hieroglyphs with translation.

At first, the Egyptian letter boiled down to a simple sketch of objects. That is, the whole word was represented in one picture. Then the figure began to contain the sounds that make up the word. But the ancient Egyptians did not write vowel sounds. Therefore, often different words were represented by a single character. To distinguish them, special symbols were placed near the symbol.

The writing of Ancient Egypt consisted of verbal, sound and identifying signs. The sound symbols consisted of several consonants. Hieroglyphics consisting of one letter were only 24. They were an alphabet and used to write foreign names. All this became known after having unraveled the secret of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Scribe of Ancient Egypt

The Egyptians used papyri for writing. The stems of the plant were cut along and stacked so that their edges were slightly overlapped. Thus, several layers were lined and pressed. Parts of the plant were glued together with their own juice.

The inscriptions were made with pointed sticks. Each scribe had his own wands. The letters were executed in two colors. Black paint was used for the main text, and red was used only at the beginning of the line.

Scribes were prepared in schools. It was a prestigious profession.

The case of Champollion is alive

When the one who deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphs died, he was worried about continuing the study of the culture of Ancient Egypt. In our time this direction has been separated into a separate science. Literature, religion, and the history of this civilization are now being studied.

So we answered the question of which of the scientists was able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Today, modern researchers can freely work with primary sources. Thanks to Champollion, the mysterious world of ancient civilization every year reveals the veils of its secrets.

Patron of the writing of Ancient Egypt

The God was considered Egyptian as the patron of writing. He was called the "scribe of the gods." The population of Ancient Egypt believed that he invented the alphabet.

In addition, he made many discoveries in the field of astrology, alchemy and medicine. Plato attributed it to the heirs of the civilization of Atlanta, explaining this by his incredible knowledge.