To establish the accuracy of my theories, I obviously had
to study the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. Hieroglyphs first appeared more
than 5,000 years ago.
Their precise origin and evolution prior to that period have not yet been
established.
However, hieroglyphics were used in the form we are familiar with throughout
the Egyptian civilisation.
Jean François Champollion (1790-1832), called the Younger, originally
from Figeac in Lot County, was the first to decipher the hieroglyphs using
the famous Rosetta Stone, today in the British Museum in London. A Decree
issued by Ptolemy V Epiphanus in 196 BC is engraved in three different
languages on this stele: Greek, demotic and a third represented by hieroglyphs.
By comparing these inscriptions, Champollion was able to draw up an Egyptian
vocabulary and grammar. In 1824 he published his Précis du système
hiéroglyphique (Summary of the Hieroglyphic System). Since then
numerous researchers have taken his discoveries further.
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| The Rosetta Stone |
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Sech : Things written
