In existographies, Jean Champollion (1707-1832) (IQ:175|#180) was a French polygot noted for his 1822 to 1832 work on the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics, a key to later 19th century religio-mythology scholarship work.
Hieroglyphics
In 1822, Champollion published his first breakthrough in the decipherment of the Rosetta hieroglyphs, showing that the Egyptian writing system was a combination of phonetic and ideographic signs – the first such script discovered. In 1824, he published a Précis in which he detailed the decipherment of the hieroglyphic script demonstrating the values of the phonetic and ideographic signs. In 1829, he traveled to Egypt where he was able to read many hieroglyphic texts that had never before been studied, and brought home a large body of new drawings of hieroglyphic inscriptions. Home again he was given a professorship in Egyptology, but only lectured a few times before his health, ruined by the hardships of the Egyptian journey, forced him to give up teaching. He died in Paris in 1832, 41 years old. His grammar of Ancient Egyptian was published posthumously.
Young
Champollion was a rival to Thomas Young, whose 1818 work he built on, in this regard to Rosetta stone translation.
Education
Champollion has been described as a brilliant son of an impoverished bookseller, who could speak various languages before he was 10. By age 16, he can speak dozen languages, and his only teacher was his brother, who was also a linguistic prodigy. (Ѻ) At age 16, Champollion decided he would devote his life to the decipherment of hieroglyphs (Ѻ).
External links
● Jean-Francois Champollion – Wikipedia.