Cracking Ancient Codes: The Revolutionary Life of Jean Francois Campollion

In 1822, Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered, which enabled the identification of Tutankhamun when his tomb was discovered in 1922. The impassioned French specialist responsible was Jean-François Champollion, the first Egyptologist, with controversial input from his rival, the understated British polymath Thomas Young.

Andrew Robinson, author of biographies of Jean-François Champollion, Thomas Young and Michael Ventris, and also Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts, gives the talk.

This is the first talk in a mini-series exploring decipherment.