Jean-François Champollion

Born in Figeac, France, on 23 December 1790, he showed an extraordinary gift for languages from a young age. That talent led him to the study of ancient Egypt, where he became fascinated by the still-mysterious writing system preserved on monuments and manuscripts.

In 1822, after years of study, he announced the breakthrough that made him famous: a method for reading Egyptian hieroglyphs, drawing especially on the Rosetta Stone and his knowledge of Coptic. The achievement transformed the study of ancient Egypt and helped establish Egyptology as a serious scholarly field.

He later traveled in Egypt, continued publishing important research, and became the first curator of the Egyptian collections at the Louvre. He died in Paris on 4 March 1832, but his reputation has endured as the scholar who gave ancient Egyptian texts their voice again.