Champollion’s (JFC’s) death – French Decipherer of the Rosetta Stone – underlines one of the age-old killers: Sex, Money, Power, and Fame. Which one could it be?

DESCRIPTION – Article:  1337 Words with many images and a sketch from the author’s notebook.

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Blog post:

https://fivehousepublishing.com/2022/04/18/champollions-jfcs-death-french-decipherer-of-the-rosetta-stone-underlines-one-of-the-age-old-killers-sex-money-power-and-fame-which-one-could-it-be/

You are probably thinking: ‘Where is the writer going with this?’ Allow me to convey the crux of the matter.

I am considering the question: Did the obsession to be famous, to be the first person to decipher the hieroglyphs, and consequently be in the history books of the world as the famous person who solved one of the most intriguing secrets of all times, kill Champollion in the process?

Of the many books on Money, Sex, and Power, it is clear that these three things – in an obsessive way – will destroy any person. Marriages were destroyed, families ruined, suicides left families heartbroken, loved ones incarcerated, and all the tragedies associated with these three destroyers of human lives are evident throughout the ages. It is shocking, devastating, and sad.

Back to Champollion. His first breakthrough came when he visited the Coptic Church in France. The sounds – the chanting in the church – confirmed what he believed. He was convinced that the hieroglyphs were a language. He visualised that the Coptic chant in church represented the way the Egyptians spoke. According to JFC, he believed that though Egyptians recorded their language in the hieroglyphic form, it sounded like the Coptic language. On the contrary, the English scientist Tomas Young believed that it was only symbols. Thomas Young (1773–1829), the well-known English physicist, was the first to show that some of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone wrote the sounds of a royal name, that of Ptolemy. The race was on!