the discovery that allowed scholars to decipher egyptian hieroglyphics was the rosetta stone.
the discovery that allowed scholars to decipher egyptian hieroglyphics was the rosetta stone.
the discovery that allowed scholars to decipher egyptian hieroglyphics was?
the rosetta stone
kircher's interest in egyptology began in 1628 when he became intrigued by a collection of hieroglyphs in the library at speyer. he learned coptic in 1633 and published the first grammar of that language in 1636, the "prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus". kircher then broke with horapollon's interpretation of the language of the hieroglyphs with his "lingua aegyptiaca restituta". kircher argued that coptic preserved the last development of ancient egyptian. for this kircher has been considered the true "founder of egyptology", because his work was conducted "before the discovery of the rosetta stone rendered egyptian hieroglyphics comprehensible to scholars". he also recognized the relationship between hieratic and hieroglyphic scripts.
athanasius kircher
it was to dacier that champollion sent his famous 1822 letter, known widely as "lettre à m. dacier", revealing his discovery of how to decipher egyptian hieroglyphics. at age 80, dacier was elected to the académie française in 1822; at the time he was the oldest member of the society. he was made a baron on 26 may 1830. pierre-françois tissot, his successor in the académie, said of him that "he had the sanest ideas on scholarship, and he unceasingly tended to give it a useful and philosophical direction. "don't look for gold mines" he said to his brother-academicians and especially to their young emulators. [ ... ] nothing could be more dangerous than his elogies; they were believed like an epigram by lebrun. on the other hand, he liked to support the development of talent; after having the good luck of having found something, his greatest pleasure was to bring it to public light." biographic notice n° 124, devoted to him on page 118 of "le premier siècle de l'institut de france" (1895), gives his name as "dacier (le baron bon, joseph)". he is buried in the cimetière du père-lachaise (29th division, 4th line, s, 33).
bon-joseph dacier