Champollion announces decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs

Background. The Rosetta Stone, a stele inscribed with three versions of a decree from 196 BC, provided the key to deciphering Egyptian scripts. Thomas Young made initial advances, recognizing that Demotic text used phonetic characters for foreign names. Champollion expanded this understanding, identifying that hieroglyphs also used phonetic signs for native Egyptian words, a crucial step beyond Young's earlier contributions.

The Breakthrough. In 1822, Champollion published his first breakthrough, showing that the Egyptian writing system was a combination of phonetic and ideographic signs. He utilized copies of the Philae obelisk to double-check readings of names like Ptolemy and Cleopatra. This verification confirmed that phonetic characters were used for both Greek and Egyptian names, solidifying his hypothesis.

Publication and Reception. Champollion's findings were presented to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in September 1822. The final version was published in late October as a booklet. While Young praised the work, some British critics alleged plagiarism, noting that Champollion's acknowledgment of Young's contributions in the Lettre à M. Dacier was incomplete.