Unlocking a Civilization

For fourteen centuries, Egypt's own history was locked behind unreadable symbols. The Rosetta Stone and Champollion's genius gave us back three thousand years of human voices.

• Hieroglyphics combined logographic, alphabetic, and determinative elements
• Only 1-3 percent of Egyptians were literate, giving scribes enormous power
• Champollion cracked the code in 1822, starting from the Ptolemy cartouche
• Decipherment revealed that ancient Egyptians complained about taxes and gossiped about neighbors

The decipherment of hieroglyphics transformed Egyptology from speculation into science.