The Champ Of Hieroglyphs

Investor's Business Daily (Kirk Shinkle)

As of the late 1700s, the secrets of early civilizations were still hidden in the indecipherable languages of ancient Egypt.

Jean-Francois Champollion stepped in to unlock them.

Thanks to his effort, those secrets became readable hieroglyphics.

Known as the father of Egyptology, his greatest achievements were deciphering the Egyptian alphabet and interpreting texts carved on the legendary Rosetta Stone.

His success combined a talent for language with an obsessive focus.

That combination is illustrated by the French linguist's reaction to his top breakthrough.

On Sept. 14, 1822, after a year of solid work and two decades of study, Champollion tied together a new theory from drawings at a temple called Abu Simbel in Egypt.

He grabbed his papers and ran out to find his brother Jacques-Joseph, yelling, "I've found it!"

When he finally tracked him down, the linguist collapsed and slid into a comalike state for five days.

"After so many years of work, often on the edge of desperation, the sudden shock of success had triggered a complete collapse," wrote Lesley and Roy Adkins in their book "The Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs."

When Champollion woke up, his ideas for reading the symbols were still crystal clear. A single sign could function in several ways in Egyptian hieroglyphics — as a word, part of a name or a phonetic sound.

The discovery came from his long study of language and a keen ability to see patterns in words and symbols that others overlooked.

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