On September 27, 1822, French scholar Jean-François Champollion announces he has deciphered the world-renowned Rosetta Stone. His announcement is made at a presentation to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris, France. By decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics, Champollion believes he has the key to unlock Egypt’s mysterious history.
Champollion's efforts had been extensive. Just two weeks earlier, on September 14, 1822, he burst into his brother’s office proclaiming, “Je tiens mon affaire!” (“I’ve got it!") Moments later, he collapsed, and reportedly took five days to fully recover.
The 20-Year Quest to Decipher the Rosetta Stone
It took one artifact, two scholars and 20 years to decode a lost ancient language.
It took one artifact, two scholars and 20 years to decode a lost ancient language.
The Rosetta Stone is a large, flat slab of granodiorite that was unearthed in ancient Egypt in July 1799. It contains several versions of writing, including demotic (a shorthand form of hieroglyphs) and ancient Greek. At the time of its discovery, many scholars believed it could be a key to understanding ancient Egyptian writings.
Although Champollion succeeded in deciphering the stone, its message was not the trove of ancient Egyptian secrets he had imagined. It contained fairly mundane text about the accomplishments of Ptolemy V Epiphanes, a Macedonian king of Egypt.
