Failure threatened, as he was only one of many attempting to read the hieroglyphs, and his main rival, the English Thomas Young, claimed that decipherment was imminent, but Champollion refused to be distracted and finally, in 1822, he made the decisive breakthrough: he was the first person able to read the ancient Egyptian language in well over a thousand years. The latter includes The Keys of Egypt, an account of Champollions successful deciphering of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Despite poverty he made gradual progress, although he had to fight against jealous enemies, both professional and political, every step of the way - a dangerous task when in post-Revolutionary France a slip of the tongue could mean ruin, exile or even death. Trafalgar, Gibraltar, The War for All the Oceans, The Keys of Egypt. Jean-Francois Champollion was obsessed with ancient languages from a very young age, and once he heard of the unreadable ancient Egyptian text he had found the challenge to which he would dedicate his life: the decipherment of hieroglyphs. Roy and Lesley Adkins are masters of their craft BBC Countryfile Magazine.
On their return Egyptomania spread rapidly and the quest to decipher hieroglyphs began in earnest. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, his troops were astonished to discover ancient temples, tombs and statues, all covered with hieroglyphs - the last remnants of an unreadable script and a language lost in time.
Richly narrated and flavored with fascinating historical detail, it reads like a novel, culminating in Champollion's 1822 triumph, when he finally solved the riddle of the hieroglyphs and revealed the glory of ancient Egypt to the world.A vivid and superbly written account of the unravelling of one of the great intellectual puzzles, set against the backdop of Europe in the Napoleonic era. For nearly two decades, he slowly pieced together the puzzle, always feeling the intense jealousy of his rivals in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, who were also striving to stake their claim to the national pride and scientific immortality that would be bestowed on the victor.The Keys of Egypt presents his dogged pursuit as a riveting intellectual detective story, bringing vividly to life one of the milestones of scientific achievement. Egyptian Language, Egyptian Language - Writing, Hieroglyphic, Egyptian Language/ Writing, Hieroglyphic, Foreign Language Study / Ancient Languages, History / Ancient / EgyptĪ child prodigy, and brilliant linguist born in 1790, French scholar Jean Francois Champollion began his quest to crack the hieroglyphic code while still a schoolboy, beginning with the Rosetta Stone.
0 kommentar(er)
