Champollion, Jean-Francois

(1790–1832)

   French scholar. He was born in Figeac on 23 December 1790. He very early conceived the desire to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script and prepared himself by studying oriental languages, including Coptic. He eventually obtained an academic post in Grenoble, France, which gave him time to devote to his studies. Champollion first regarded the script as symbolic; however, Englishman Thomas Young demonstrated that the names of the Ptolemaic rulers were written alphabetically. Champollion later disingenuously claimed that he was unaware of Young’s research, but he adopted this approach and soon, with the help of such bilingual inscriptions as the Rosetta Stone, surpassed Young’s work. Champollion established that the hieroglyphic script was both alphabetic and pictographic and was able to read ancient Egyptian for the first time and realize that it was an older form of Coptic.

   He achieved widespread recognition for his work and in 1826 was appointed first curator of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre Museum. From 1828–1829 he visited Egypt. Champollion was appointed professor of Egyptian history and archaeology at the College de France in Paris in 1831. He died in Paris on 4 March 1832. Although respected as a scholar, he was regarded by his contemporaries as an arrogant and difficult man.

Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier