Jean-François Champollion, born on December 23, 1790, in Figeac, France, and passed away on March 4, 1832, in Paris, was a pioneering French scholar known for his work in deciphering Egyptian Hieroglyphs. His contributions to Egyptology and philology have been monumental in understanding ancient Egyptian civilization.
Champollion's interest in ancient languages was sparked at a very young age. By the age of 16, he had already published his first paper on the subject. He studied at the Grenoble Academy and later moved to Paris to further his education, where he became a student of Silvestre de Sacy, a renowned orientalist.
Champollion's most significant achievement came in 1822 when he announced his decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. This artifact, discovered by French troops in 1799, contained inscriptions in three scripts: Greek, demotic script, and hieroglyphs. By comparing these texts, Champollion deduced that hieroglyphs could represent sounds as well as ideas, a dual usage known as the rebus principle. His breakthrough was announced in his famous "Lettre à M. Dacier," where he detailed how he used the Greek names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra to identify phonetic values of hieroglyphs.
Champollion also traveled to Egypt in 1828 as part of a Franco-Tuscan expedition, where he could see the hieroglyphs in their original context. His travels were documented in "Monuments de l'Égypte et de la Nubie," published posthumously.
Champollion died at the age of 41, but his work was carried on by others, including his brother Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac. His contributions were recognized globally, and he has been honored with numerous tributes, including a statue in his hometown of Figeac.