![]() (Image credit: Fotosearch via Getty Images) The Rosetta stone was key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Up until the scholar Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) started studying hieroglyphs, "scholars basically believed that all hieroglyphs were only symbolic" Allen told Live Science in an email, noting that Champollion's most important "contribution was to recognize that they could also represent sounds." Hieroglyphic writing contains signs that represent sounds and other signs that represent ideas (like how nowadays people use a heart sign to represent love) said James Allen, an Egyptology professor at Brown University. But notice this: although copies of the Rosetta inscription were circulated among scholars ever since its discovery, it would take more than two decades before any significant progress in decipherment was made" Andréas Stauder, an Egyptology professor at École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, told Live Science in an email. "The Rosetta inscription has become the icon of decipherment, in general, with the implication that having bilinguals is the single most important key to decipherment.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |