Champollion the Great




Champollion

  For a person that only lives to 41, I think that deciphering an entire ancient language is pretty impressive. Jean-Francois Champollion did just that. His childhood was impressive too. He knew Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian, English, German, Italian, Latin, Syriac, Chaldean, Coptic, and a few other Near Eastern languages by 17.17! I only know one language and I'm 12, I've got a ways to go if I want to catch up to him. When he was eleven he visited a man, Jean-Baptiste Fourier, who had a copy of the Rosetta Stone. Ever since he laid eyes on the stone he wanted to be the first to decipher it. Big dreams for an eleven year old, but maybe we should find something we want to accomplish and do it. Eventually Champollion got his grubby hands on a copy, you see living terms for him was an attic. It took Champollion 21 years to decipher a simple message and when  he did all he had to do was do the opposite of what he did before he would have had it right off the bat. That's 21 years practically wasted. By that time it was 1822. After Champollion deciphered more he started making a book which would be published in 1824 that included all the discoveries he made in the Egyptologist field. So what might you get for being the key to unlocking an ancient civilization? A trip to Egypt of course! Unfortunately, Champollion died shortly after that due to ill health, he will always be Champollion the Great in the view of Egyptologists.