The document provides historical context on the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs from the 17th to early 19th centuries. Key figures mentioned include Athanasius Kircher, who first studied Coptic; Jean-François Champollion, who deciphered Egyptian scripts in 1822; and Thomas Young and Johan David Åkerblad, who made partial progress in deciphering demotic script but did not solve it. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone was a major breakthrough, providing a multilingual text that could aid in decipherment.
Egyptians developed hieroglyphic writing around 3400 BC, and it was used until around 396 AD. Hieroglyphics could represent sounds or symbols and included images like the Eye of Horus. The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, helped scholars decipher hieroglyphics because it included three translations of the same text in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Scribes were the only people trained to read and write hieroglyphics, keeping government records and writing letters.
The document summarizes the representation of apes in medieval art from early Christianity through the Gothic period. It discusses how apes were depicted as the Devil in early Christian works, as symbols of vice or lust in fables and bestiaries of the Romanesque period, and as humorous parodies of human behavior in marginalia and tapestries of the Gothic period. Skulls and depictions of real apes from archaeological sites also demonstrate their increasing presence in Europe. Over time, the ape shifted from solely representing the Devil to broader depictions of vice or as entertainers.
John Wilkins created a philosophical language in the 17th century that classified the universe into 40 categories. Each category, difference, and species was assigned a symbol made of letters to define it. While ingenious, the classification had ambiguities and flaws. Ultimately, any human system for classifying the entire universe will be imperfect, as our understanding of the universe is limited. The document discusses both Wilkins' language and the limitations of attempting to develop a comprehensive classification system.
The theory of four personality types originated in ancient Greece with the philosopher Empedocles, who proposed that all things were made up of four elements - earth, air, fire and water. This theory was developed by Hippocrates into the concept of four distinct human temperaments (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine) caused by levels of four bodily fluids. Theophrastus later created detailed character sketches based on these temperaments. His work influenced comedic playwrights like Menander and later Elizabethan dramatists, ensuring the four temperaments became a standard device used in storytelling and comedy.
This document provides information about Greek mythology and the nine Muses who each protected a form of art or literature. It discusses each Muse's domain and symbolic representation. Calliope was the chief Muse of epic poetry. Clio was the patron of history and heroic poetry. Erato oversaw lyric poetry dealing with love. Euterpe governed lyric poetry and music. Polyhymnia ruled sacred poetry and eloquence. Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy. Terpsichore reigned over dancing and chorus. Thalia governed comedy and pastoral poetry.
SlideShare now has a player specifically designed for infographics. Upload your infographics now and see them take off! Need advice on creating infographics? This presentation includes tips for producing stand-out infographics. Read more about the new SlideShare infographics player here: http://wp.me/p24NNG-2ay
This infographic was designed by Column Five: http://columnfivemedia.com/
This document provides tips to avoid common mistakes in PowerPoint presentation design. It identifies the top 5 mistakes as including putting too much information on slides, not using enough visuals, using poor quality or unreadable visuals, having messy slides with poor spacing and alignment, and not properly preparing and practicing the presentation. The document encourages presenters to use fewer words per slide, high quality images and charts, consistent formatting, and to spend significant time crafting an engaging narrative and rehearsing their presentation. It emphasizes that an attractive design is not as important as being an effective storyteller.
Egyptians developed hieroglyphic writing around 3400 BC, and it was used until around 396 AD. Hieroglyphics could represent sounds or symbols and included images like the Eye of Horus. The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, helped scholars decipher hieroglyphics because it included three translations of the same text in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Scribes were the only people trained to read and write hieroglyphics, keeping government records and writing letters.
The document summarizes the representation of apes in medieval art from early Christianity through the Gothic period. It discusses how apes were depicted as the Devil in early Christian works, as symbols of vice or lust in fables and bestiaries of the Romanesque period, and as humorous parodies of human behavior in marginalia and tapestries of the Gothic period. Skulls and depictions of real apes from archaeological sites also demonstrate their increasing presence in Europe. Over time, the ape shifted from solely representing the Devil to broader depictions of vice or as entertainers.
John Wilkins created a philosophical language in the 17th century that classified the universe into 40 categories. Each category, difference, and species was assigned a symbol made of letters to define it. While ingenious, the classification had ambiguities and flaws. Ultimately, any human system for classifying the entire universe will be imperfect, as our understanding of the universe is limited. The document discusses both Wilkins' language and the limitations of attempting to develop a comprehensive classification system.
The theory of four personality types originated in ancient Greece with the philosopher Empedocles, who proposed that all things were made up of four elements - earth, air, fire and water. This theory was developed by Hippocrates into the concept of four distinct human temperaments (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine) caused by levels of four bodily fluids. Theophrastus later created detailed character sketches based on these temperaments. His work influenced comedic playwrights like Menander and later Elizabethan dramatists, ensuring the four temperaments became a standard device used in storytelling and comedy.
This document provides information about Greek mythology and the nine Muses who each protected a form of art or literature. It discusses each Muse's domain and symbolic representation. Calliope was the chief Muse of epic poetry. Clio was the patron of history and heroic poetry. Erato oversaw lyric poetry dealing with love. Euterpe governed lyric poetry and music. Polyhymnia ruled sacred poetry and eloquence. Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy. Terpsichore reigned over dancing and chorus. Thalia governed comedy and pastoral poetry.
SlideShare now has a player specifically designed for infographics. Upload your infographics now and see them take off! Need advice on creating infographics? This presentation includes tips for producing stand-out infographics. Read more about the new SlideShare infographics player here: http://wp.me/p24NNG-2ay
This infographic was designed by Column Five: http://columnfivemedia.com/
This document provides tips to avoid common mistakes in PowerPoint presentation design. It identifies the top 5 mistakes as including putting too much information on slides, not using enough visuals, using poor quality or unreadable visuals, having messy slides with poor spacing and alignment, and not properly preparing and practicing the presentation. The document encourages presenters to use fewer words per slide, high quality images and charts, consistent formatting, and to spend significant time crafting an engaging narrative and rehearsing their presentation. It emphasizes that an attractive design is not as important as being an effective storyteller.
The document discusses the history of Egyptian hieroglyphs from ancient Egypt through the Renaissance. It describes how Cleopatra was the last ruler of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty and could speak Egyptian. It also discusses how obelisks were taken from Egypt to Rome and reset during the Renaissance. Scholars from antiquity through the 17th century struggled to interpret hieroglyphs, with some interpretations being correct and others incorrect.
The document provides information on various ancient writing systems including:
1) Rock paintings from the Stone Age found in South Africa that depict humans and animals and are preserved in shades of ochre and white.
2) Cuneiform writing developed by the Sumerians around 3500 BC which used wedge-shaped markings pressed into wet clay tablets.
3) Egyptian hieroglyphics formed around 3000 BC with thousands of symbols representing ideas, objects, and sounds that were carved on walls and monuments.
4) The Greek alphabet developed around 1000 BC from the Phoenician alphabet and was adapted to represent vowels, increasing its accuracy for the Greek language. It evolved into modern scripts and was widely adopted.
Emperor Claudius I and the Etruscans by Keith ArmstrongKeith Armstrong
Emperor Claudius I who was born with cerebral palsy. Apart from being an emperor he was also a major Roman historian who was tutored by Livy (one of most significant Roman historians of all time). Claudius wrote a number of history books and he was one of the last major figures to be fluent in Etruscan. Emperor Claudius I first wife was Etruscan. He also wrote a history of the Etruscans which has since disappeared.
- The Rosetta Stone was discovered by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799 and helped French scholars begin to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- When the British defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was transferred to British possession per the Treaty of Capitulation and sent to the British Museum in London.
- Jean-François Champollion was able to decipher the hieroglyphs by comparing the Greek and Egyptian scripts on the Rosetta Stone, making him the father of Egyptology.
- The Rosetta Stone was discovered by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799 and helped French scholars begin to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- When the British defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was transferred to British possession per the terms of surrender.
- The text on the Rosetta Stone is inscribed in three scripts - hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian, and ancient Greek - allowing scholars like Champollion to match words and break the hieroglyphic code by the 1820s.
The document provides an overview of European literature from ancient Greece to the 20th century, covering major works, authors, and periods. It discusses Greek authors like Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides. For Rome, it mentions Virgil's Aeneid. The Middle Ages produced epics like the Nibelungenlied. The Renaissance saw the rediscovery of classical works. Countries covered include France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Scandinavia. It provides biographical details and summaries of works by authors like Dante, Goethe, Pushkin, and Tolstoy.
The document provides background information on ancient Egyptian scripts and writing. It discusses hieroglyphs, hieratic, and demotic scripts. Hieroglyphs were formal script used in temples and tombs, while hieratic was a simplified cursive script used for everyday writing. Scribes were highly educated and held important roles recording administrative and economic activities, as well as religious and scholarly texts. Papyrus was the writing material of ancient Egypt, made from reeds that grew along the Nile. It was exported and widely used throughout the Mediterranean region until the 8th century AD when paper making was adopted from China.
Ancient Egyptians developed a system of hieroglyphic writing using pictorial symbols that was used for ceremonial and permanent messages. Hieroglyphics stems from Greek meaning "sacred carvings". Some hieroglyphics were carved into monuments and buildings, while others were painted on walls and tombs. The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, helped French scholar Champollion decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822 by comparing the same text in three languages. Hieroglyphics consisted of over 750 individual signs that could be written horizontally, vertically, or in either direction and words were constructed using different combinations.
The document provides a timeline of important figures and developments in the history of linguistics from 4000 BCE to the 20th century. Some key points covered include:
- The earliest known writing system was cuneiform developed by the Sumerians around 4000 BCE.
- Important early grammarians and linguistic works included Panini's grammar of Sanskrit in India and the Tolkappiyam grammar of Tamil from the 2nd century BCE.
- Greek linguists like Plato, Aristotle, and Apollonius Dyscolus studied morphology and syntax. Roman grammarians like Varro and Priscian focused on morphology.
- Medieval grammarians built upon Latin works and described other European languages.
The document provides a timeline of important figures and developments in the history of linguistics from 4000 BCE to the 20th century. Some key points covered include:
- The earliest known writing system was cuneiform developed by the Sumerians around 4000 BCE.
- Important early grammarians and linguistic works included Pānini's grammar of Sanskrit in India and the Tolkāppiyam grammar of Tamil.
- Greek linguists like Plato, Aristotle, and Apollonius Dyscolus studied morphology and syntax. Roman grammarians like Varro and Priscian continued Greek traditions.
- Medieval grammarians focused on Latin and included Isidore of Seville, Don
Ancient historians studied include Orosius, Ram Sharan Sharma, Leonie Archer, Michael Crawford, Edward Gibbon, Josephus, Herodotus, Tacitus, Thucydides, Max Weber, Xenophon, Polybius, and Fernand Braudel. They specialized in diverse time periods and regions, employing various methodologies to investigate and chronicle important historical events and developments.
This document provides a brief history of linguistic studies from ancient Sumerians to modern times. It covers early traditions from India and Greece, developments during the medieval period and Renaissance, comparative studies in the 18th-19th centuries, structuralism in the 20th century, and generative grammar developed by Noam Chomsky. Key figures and their contributions are mentioned, including Panini's Sanskrit grammar, Saussure's views on language as a system, and Whorf's hypothesis about language shaping thought.
This document outlines the history of linguistics from ancient Sumerian texts to modern times. It describes key events and figures such as:
- Pānini who wrote the first Sanskrit grammar in the 5th century BC.
- Ferdinand de Saussure who was influential in the 20th century with ideas about language as a system of signs.
- Noam Chomsky who transformed linguistics with generative grammar theories in the 1950s-60s.
- George Lakoff who argued metaphor is key to political debate and battled Chomsky on linguistic theories.
The timeline traces developments from early grammarians through modern cognitive linguistics.
- The Babylonians developed a system of writing called cuneiform around 3000 BC using a stylus to make wedge-shaped impressions in wet clay. This was a natural consequence of using clay as their writing medium.
- Cuneiform characters became simplified over time, losing their original pictographic forms. Deciphering cuneiform scripts proved very challenging for scholars due to changes in the language over thousands of years.
- In the early 19th century, Georg Grotefend made the first breakthrough in deciphering cuneiform by deducing parts of text on Persian monuments, though his work was initially ridiculed. Henry Rawlinson further advanced decipherment by painstakingly copying the
The document discusses hieroglyphics, the ancient writing system of Egypt. It describes how hieroglyphics evolved from pictographs to represent sounds and ideas. Key aspects covered include the Eye of Horus fraction system, writing tools used like reed pens, and cartouches which held the names of pharaohs. The Rosetta Stone was instrumental in deciphering hieroglyphics due to its inclusion of hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek scripts. Scribes were the literate elite who could read and write hieroglyphics and kept official records.
The document discusses the history and features of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. It originated suddenly around 3100 BC in a fully developed form, and remained unchanged for over 3000 years. Hieroglyphs were pictographic symbols that could represent sounds, syllables, or objects. They were used in monumental inscriptions but later evolved into cursive scripts for common use. The Rosetta Stone helped French scholar Champollion decode hieroglyphs in 1822 by providing a multilingual text for comparison.
A timeline of the history of linguistics Jasmin Cruz
The document provides a timeline of the history of linguistics from ancient Sumerians to modern generative grammar. Some key developments include Pānini's grammar of Sanskrit, Saussure's distinction between langue and parole, the structuralist tradition influenced by Saussure and Jakobson, Chomsky's generative grammar which transformed the field, and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis about the relationship between language and thought. The timeline traces the evolution of linguistics from a focus on grammar and philology to modern approaches like structuralism and generative grammar.
This document introduces a course on the ancient Greek hero based on selected readings from Greek literature spanning from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE. The readings are available free online and include works by Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Pindar, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Plato. The course is divided into five parts focusing on heroes in epic poetry, prose, tragedy, and Plato's dialogues. The document provides historical context, explaining that ancient Greece was made up of independent city-states rather than a single nation, and discusses concepts of religion, mythology, and Panhellenic culture that were shared across the Greek world.
The document discusses the history of Egyptian hieroglyphs from ancient Egypt through the Renaissance. It describes how Cleopatra was the last ruler of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty and could speak Egyptian. It also discusses how obelisks were taken from Egypt to Rome and reset during the Renaissance. Scholars from antiquity through the 17th century struggled to interpret hieroglyphs, with some interpretations being correct and others incorrect.
The document provides information on various ancient writing systems including:
1) Rock paintings from the Stone Age found in South Africa that depict humans and animals and are preserved in shades of ochre and white.
2) Cuneiform writing developed by the Sumerians around 3500 BC which used wedge-shaped markings pressed into wet clay tablets.
3) Egyptian hieroglyphics formed around 3000 BC with thousands of symbols representing ideas, objects, and sounds that were carved on walls and monuments.
4) The Greek alphabet developed around 1000 BC from the Phoenician alphabet and was adapted to represent vowels, increasing its accuracy for the Greek language. It evolved into modern scripts and was widely adopted.
Emperor Claudius I and the Etruscans by Keith ArmstrongKeith Armstrong
Emperor Claudius I who was born with cerebral palsy. Apart from being an emperor he was also a major Roman historian who was tutored by Livy (one of most significant Roman historians of all time). Claudius wrote a number of history books and he was one of the last major figures to be fluent in Etruscan. Emperor Claudius I first wife was Etruscan. He also wrote a history of the Etruscans which has since disappeared.
- The Rosetta Stone was discovered by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799 and helped French scholars begin to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- When the British defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was transferred to British possession per the Treaty of Capitulation and sent to the British Museum in London.
- Jean-François Champollion was able to decipher the hieroglyphs by comparing the Greek and Egyptian scripts on the Rosetta Stone, making him the father of Egyptology.
- The Rosetta Stone was discovered by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799 and helped French scholars begin to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- When the British defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was transferred to British possession per the terms of surrender.
- The text on the Rosetta Stone is inscribed in three scripts - hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian, and ancient Greek - allowing scholars like Champollion to match words and break the hieroglyphic code by the 1820s.
The document provides an overview of European literature from ancient Greece to the 20th century, covering major works, authors, and periods. It discusses Greek authors like Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides. For Rome, it mentions Virgil's Aeneid. The Middle Ages produced epics like the Nibelungenlied. The Renaissance saw the rediscovery of classical works. Countries covered include France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Scandinavia. It provides biographical details and summaries of works by authors like Dante, Goethe, Pushkin, and Tolstoy.
The document provides background information on ancient Egyptian scripts and writing. It discusses hieroglyphs, hieratic, and demotic scripts. Hieroglyphs were formal script used in temples and tombs, while hieratic was a simplified cursive script used for everyday writing. Scribes were highly educated and held important roles recording administrative and economic activities, as well as religious and scholarly texts. Papyrus was the writing material of ancient Egypt, made from reeds that grew along the Nile. It was exported and widely used throughout the Mediterranean region until the 8th century AD when paper making was adopted from China.
Ancient Egyptians developed a system of hieroglyphic writing using pictorial symbols that was used for ceremonial and permanent messages. Hieroglyphics stems from Greek meaning "sacred carvings". Some hieroglyphics were carved into monuments and buildings, while others were painted on walls and tombs. The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, helped French scholar Champollion decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822 by comparing the same text in three languages. Hieroglyphics consisted of over 750 individual signs that could be written horizontally, vertically, or in either direction and words were constructed using different combinations.
The document provides a timeline of important figures and developments in the history of linguistics from 4000 BCE to the 20th century. Some key points covered include:
- The earliest known writing system was cuneiform developed by the Sumerians around 4000 BCE.
- Important early grammarians and linguistic works included Panini's grammar of Sanskrit in India and the Tolkappiyam grammar of Tamil from the 2nd century BCE.
- Greek linguists like Plato, Aristotle, and Apollonius Dyscolus studied morphology and syntax. Roman grammarians like Varro and Priscian focused on morphology.
- Medieval grammarians built upon Latin works and described other European languages.
The document provides a timeline of important figures and developments in the history of linguistics from 4000 BCE to the 20th century. Some key points covered include:
- The earliest known writing system was cuneiform developed by the Sumerians around 4000 BCE.
- Important early grammarians and linguistic works included Pānini's grammar of Sanskrit in India and the Tolkāppiyam grammar of Tamil.
- Greek linguists like Plato, Aristotle, and Apollonius Dyscolus studied morphology and syntax. Roman grammarians like Varro and Priscian continued Greek traditions.
- Medieval grammarians focused on Latin and included Isidore of Seville, Don
Ancient historians studied include Orosius, Ram Sharan Sharma, Leonie Archer, Michael Crawford, Edward Gibbon, Josephus, Herodotus, Tacitus, Thucydides, Max Weber, Xenophon, Polybius, and Fernand Braudel. They specialized in diverse time periods and regions, employing various methodologies to investigate and chronicle important historical events and developments.
This document provides a brief history of linguistic studies from ancient Sumerians to modern times. It covers early traditions from India and Greece, developments during the medieval period and Renaissance, comparative studies in the 18th-19th centuries, structuralism in the 20th century, and generative grammar developed by Noam Chomsky. Key figures and their contributions are mentioned, including Panini's Sanskrit grammar, Saussure's views on language as a system, and Whorf's hypothesis about language shaping thought.
This document outlines the history of linguistics from ancient Sumerian texts to modern times. It describes key events and figures such as:
- Pānini who wrote the first Sanskrit grammar in the 5th century BC.
- Ferdinand de Saussure who was influential in the 20th century with ideas about language as a system of signs.
- Noam Chomsky who transformed linguistics with generative grammar theories in the 1950s-60s.
- George Lakoff who argued metaphor is key to political debate and battled Chomsky on linguistic theories.
The timeline traces developments from early grammarians through modern cognitive linguistics.
- The Babylonians developed a system of writing called cuneiform around 3000 BC using a stylus to make wedge-shaped impressions in wet clay. This was a natural consequence of using clay as their writing medium.
- Cuneiform characters became simplified over time, losing their original pictographic forms. Deciphering cuneiform scripts proved very challenging for scholars due to changes in the language over thousands of years.
- In the early 19th century, Georg Grotefend made the first breakthrough in deciphering cuneiform by deducing parts of text on Persian monuments, though his work was initially ridiculed. Henry Rawlinson further advanced decipherment by painstakingly copying the
The document discusses hieroglyphics, the ancient writing system of Egypt. It describes how hieroglyphics evolved from pictographs to represent sounds and ideas. Key aspects covered include the Eye of Horus fraction system, writing tools used like reed pens, and cartouches which held the names of pharaohs. The Rosetta Stone was instrumental in deciphering hieroglyphics due to its inclusion of hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek scripts. Scribes were the literate elite who could read and write hieroglyphics and kept official records.
The document discusses the history and features of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. It originated suddenly around 3100 BC in a fully developed form, and remained unchanged for over 3000 years. Hieroglyphs were pictographic symbols that could represent sounds, syllables, or objects. They were used in monumental inscriptions but later evolved into cursive scripts for common use. The Rosetta Stone helped French scholar Champollion decode hieroglyphs in 1822 by providing a multilingual text for comparison.
A timeline of the history of linguistics Jasmin Cruz
The document provides a timeline of the history of linguistics from ancient Sumerians to modern generative grammar. Some key developments include Pānini's grammar of Sanskrit, Saussure's distinction between langue and parole, the structuralist tradition influenced by Saussure and Jakobson, Chomsky's generative grammar which transformed the field, and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis about the relationship between language and thought. The timeline traces the evolution of linguistics from a focus on grammar and philology to modern approaches like structuralism and generative grammar.
This document introduces a course on the ancient Greek hero based on selected readings from Greek literature spanning from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE. The readings are available free online and include works by Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Pindar, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Plato. The course is divided into five parts focusing on heroes in epic poetry, prose, tragedy, and Plato's dialogues. The document provides historical context, explaining that ancient Greece was made up of independent city-states rather than a single nation, and discusses concepts of religion, mythology, and Panhellenic culture that were shared across the Greek world.
2. Kircher's ‘Translation’ of the Piazza Navona Cartouche: ‘ The beneficent generative force commanding through supernal and infernal dominion, augments the flow of sacred humour emanating from above. Saturn, the disposer of fleeing time, promotes the fecundity of the soil, commanding humid nature. For by his influence all things have life and force.’
3. Athanasius Kircher (1601/1602 – 1680) was the first European scholar to study Coptic and to note that it was the last form of the language of ancient Egypt. Kircher published a grammar of Coptic in 1636.
4. Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 – 1741) published all of the non-hieroglyphic texts from ancient Egypt then known, not more than 2 pages worth, and considered these to be the “public” script described by Herodotus. He also noted that Coptic is the language of ancient Egypt and that the six extra letters of the Coptic alphabet (those not borrowed from the Greek) were likely derived from the cursive ancient Egyptian script.
5. The Coptic alphabet has six extra letters not found in the Greek alphabet from which it is derived.
6. William Warburton (1698 – 1779), Bishop of Gloucester, wrote a massive book in which he argued that the ancient Egyptian texts recorded “openly and plainly laws, policies, morals, and history, and, in a word, all kinds of civil matters”. Only in its late phase was the hieroglyphic system turned into a secretive code, where signs were used to symbolize the properties and not the phonetic value, or the actual object, being portrayed. The confusion of these two stages of hieroglyphic use ‘involved the whole history of hieroglyphic writing in infinite confusion’. At the same time, the alphabet was invented by the Egyptians (a secretary of the pharaoh to be precise) to combat the increasingly esoteric nature of hieroglyphs.
10. Jean-Jacques Barthélemy (1716 – 1795) read Warburton’s work and agreed with him and most others of the day that Egypt was the most ancient civilization. He looked into hieratic writing for the origin of the six extra signs in Coptic, as he assumed that the hieratic was alphabetic. This was despite the fact that there are far too many signs to be a normal alphabet. He is also famous for being the first to suggest that the hieroglyphs inside a cartouche spell out the names of kings or gods.
11. Barthélemy worked in the service of Anne-Claude Philippe de Tubieres de Grimoard de Pestels de Levis, the Comte de Caylus (1692 – 1765). Caylus was a French nobleman and in his retirement became an antiquarian and proto-archaeologist. His large collection of works from the Near East, gathered on his travels in the Ottoman Empire, were invaluable for scholars studying ancient writing systems, especially those investigating Egyptian hieroglyphs. Even more important than his collection was his demand for accurate illustrations of texts.
12. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 – 1815) was a German in the service of the Danish king. He traveled in the Near East, including Egypt, and produced some of the first decent drawings of Egyptian texts, with which he was well familiar through his travels. He also was the first to note that hieroglyphs should be distinguished from the rest of Egyptian art. Niebuhr is more famous for his contributions to the decipherment of the cuneiform writing systems.
13. Georg Zoëga (1755 – 1809) was a Danish scholar and wrote the book De origine et usu obeliscorum (1797), in which he outlines his views on Egyptian writing. Among his observations were that the hieroglyphs could be read either left to right or right to left, and that reading order could be determined by reading into the faces of the people or animals portrayed. He was the first to suggest that “phonetic signs” (he coined the term) might be included in the hieroglyphs.
14. In 1798 Napoléon Bonaparte sailed from France to Egypt, hoping to set up a French protectorate that could be used to indirectly combat the British Empire. A man of the Enlightenment, Napoléon took with him numerous savants , the scholars of his day, in order to study the country. While they were greatly disappointed by Alexandria, as his forces moved south they encountered the incredible antiquities, which up to that point were scarcely known in Europe.
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16. Napoléon was defeated in 1802 and had to return to France, where he quickly seized sole power as emperor and embarked on his famous wars in Europe. His savants returned with artifacts and, far more important, their drawings and descriptions of the country, published in the massive 19-volume series Description de l’Égypte , published between 1809 and 1822.
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22. Rashid (Rosetta) in NW Egypt, where Napoléon’s forces attempted to rebuild a fortress (Fort Julien) to stave off British invasion.
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24. The Rosetta Stone was discovered in July, 1799 in one of the walls of Fort Julien in Rosetta. Its importance as a bilingual text (in three scripts) was immediately recognized. The British took possession after defeating the French in Egypt in 1801 and the next year it was sent to the new British Museum in London, where it remains today. The French had already made copies of the piece, which they took back to France.
25. The International Congress of Orientalists viewing the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery in the British Museum ( Illustrated London News, Sept. 26, 1874)
26. The Greek text could be easily read, and recorded a decree promulgated in the name of the 12-year old king Ptolemy V Epiphanes on March 27, 196 B.C. The decree remitted the taxes of the temples as reward for their allegiance to Ptolemy and his murdered parents in the recent native rebellion that was, in fact, still ongoing.
27. This image of how the Rosetta Stone originally looked illustrates how much of the text, nearly a third, is missing. The hieroglyphic portion is the most affected, and only 14 lines remain, all of which are missing at least a portion on the right. The demotic and Greek sections are almost complete.
28. Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758 – 1838) was an accomplished linguist and orientalist, having already deciphered the Sassanid Persian inscriptions before tackling Egyptian hieroglyphs. Using copies of the Rosetta Stone, he tried his hand at deciphering the middle ‘Egyptian’ text (today called demotic), as the upper hieroglyphic one was damaged and the ‘hieroglyphic character , being representative of ideas, not sounds, does not belong to the domain of any particular language’. Sacy thought that the demotic system was entirely alphabetic.
29. Sacy thought the demotic text to be entirely alphabetic, and proceeded to translate it, but immediately ran into problems. The name of Ptolemy he read as ‘Aftuulma’, for example. Sacy’s problem was in assuming the demotic was all alphabetic, and deciphering the ‘letters’ by comparing them to Hebrew, Coptic and Samaritan letters. Sacy thought that demotic had so many ‘letter’ forms because like Hebrew and Arabic, it changed the shape of the letters depending on where they appeared in a word.
30. Johan David Åkerblad (1763 – 1819) was more successful with the demotic and managed to figure out many more letters and actually read the names of Ptolemy and Arsinoe and other names in the text. However, the rest of the text remained inscrutable even to him, since he too still thought it was all alphabetic.
31. Sacy did note: “ We know that the Chinese experience this difficulty [namely, in writing foreign names] and that they are sometimes obliged to employ a special sign to show that the characters used in expressing a proper name are reduced to simple [phonetic] value. I conjecture that in the hieroglyphic text of the Rosetta inscription the line that encircles a series of hieroglyphs is employed for the same function.”
32. Thomas Young (1773 – 1829) was an Englishman who made contributions to many arenas of science, including history, medicine, physics etc. He was the chief competitor with Champollion for deciphering hieroglyphs. He tried his hand at deciphering demotic by assuming the language it recorded was Coptic, but got no further than Åkerblad. Young assumed the Greeks were wrong about the demotic being an alphabetic system. Since he could see similarities in the demotic signs to hieroglyphs, he assumed (correctly) that they were related scripts.
33. Jean-François Champollion (1790 - 1832) - Learned Greek, Latin, and Coptic at a young age. - Mastered the Greek historical texts on Egyptian history, culture and politics by his late teens. - Deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic scripts in 1822.
34. In 1814 Champollion published a book on his research into the native names for the ancient cities and nomes (districts or provinces) of ancient Egypt, which he determined through examining Greek, Coptic and Arabic manuscripts.
35. Champollion scoured the drawings in the newly published Description de l’Égypte for hieroglyphs, and especially bilingual texts (in Greek and Egyptian, or in the different Egyptian scripts). Champollion was the first to realize there were 4 scripts: hieroglyphs, cursive hieroglyphs, hieratic, and demotic.
43. The Temple of Isis at Philae (ancient Pilaqe) The Obelisks of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III once stood here
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48. - fragment of a 4th-century BC water-clock now in the Louvre, Paris.
49. ʒ l k s s r t n ỉ - fragment of a 4th-century BC water-clock now in the Louvre, Paris. ʒl e ks a ỉntr o s Alexandros
50. Kircher's ‘Translation’ of the Piazza Navona Cartouche: ‘ The beneficent generative force commanding through supernal and infernal dominion, augments the flow of sacred humour emanating from above. Saturn, the disposer of fleeing time, promotes the fecundity of the soil, commanding humid nature. For by his influence all things have life and force.’ Today, this can be read as follows: K ʒ s r s T my t y ʒ n s (Caesar Domitianus), who lives forever’
53. • Note that the names of Tuthmosis and Ramesses both involve the ms - s sequence, but each has a different initial element that is at least partly pictorial—a great boon to the decipherer of partially logographic scripts.
54. Cartouches of Ramesses II • These variant spellings of the name of Ramesses the Great were drawn by Champollion for his famous Lettre à M. Dacier (1822). • They read: 1. r’-ms-s 1 -s 1 2. ’-mn-n-mry r’- DET -ms-s 1 -s 1 3. ’ -mn-n-mry r’-ms-s 1 -s 1 4. ’-mn-n r’-ms-s 2 -s 2 mry 5. ’mn -r’ -mry ms-s 2 -s 2 6. ’-mn-n r’ -DET -ms-s 2 -s 2 mry ‘ Ramesses, beloved of Amen’ 1 2 3 4 5 6
Editor's Notes
Titus Flavius Domitianus (24 October 51 – 18 September 96), known as Domitian , was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 14 September 81 until his death in 96 A.D. We'll return to Kircher's ‘translation’ in a little while
In the first two centuries of the present era, these four writing systems (and four different languages) were used simultaneously in Egypt, each in a different context: hieroglyphic on monuments and tombs (recording Middle Egyptian), hieratic in traditionall religious texts (recording Late Egyptian), demotic for personal letters ad documents (recording Demotic) and Coptic in the new liturgical Christian tradition.
The Bankes Obelisk, at Kingston Lacy, Dorset. (Set as instructed by the Duke of Wellington.)
So let us now return to Kircher's translation.