Jean-François Champollion

Jean-François Champollion 

 

Jean-François Champollion (1790 -1832) was a French  classical scholar, philologist andorientalist, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs .Champollion published the first translation of the Rosetta Stone  hieroglyphs in 1822, showing that the Egyptianwriting system was a combinationof phonetic and ideographic signs.

Thomas Young was one of the first to attempt decipherment of the  Egyptian hieroglyphs, basing his own work on the investigations of Swedish  diplomat Åkerblad, but he failed to fully decipher the script but Young was able to translate some of the stone leading the way for Champollion to begin his own investigations.In 1822, Champollion finally published the first correct translation of the hieroglyphs and the key to the grammatical system. Young and all others praised this work.