Champollion, Jean-François (1790 – 1832)

He is considered to be the father of Egyptology. To him we owe the decipherment of the hieroglyphic system. He was familiar with many Oriental languages from an early age. He developed a passion for Egyptian writing and studied Coptic at the age of 16. As he got older he continued to develop his linguistic knowledge; he became very interested in the Rosetta Stone. He understood that hieroglyphs were phonetic and ideographic at the same time; little by little, he discovered their many meanings. In 1822 he reached the goal of deciphering the hieroglyphic system.