Host: Welcome back to Chronicle, the podcast that doesn't just read history—it lives it. I'm your host, broadcasting from our studio in 2026. Today, we're dialing the coordinates back to a turning point in human understanding. The place: Paris, France. The date: September 14, 1822. The atmosphere? Electric. We are moments away from the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Standing by on the cobblestones of the Rue Mazarine is our field reporter, Julian. Julian, set the scene for us. What does 1822 feel like?
Julian: [Whispering urgency] It feels... heavy, Sarah. Not just the humidity, which is clinging to the wool coats of the Parisians passing by, but the weight of history. I’m standing outside number 28 Rue Mazarine. It’s a narrow, crooked street on the Left Bank. The sun is just cutting through a haze of coal smoke and river fog. It smells intensely of wet limestone, horse manure, and the faint, acrid scent of woodsmoke.
Host: And our subject? The man of the hour?
Julian: Jean-François Champollion. He’s up there, in a cramped attic room on the top floor. I’ve been speaking with his neighbor, a baker named Henri—statistically one of the most common names in this census district, by the way. Henri tells me the candle in Champollion’s window hasn’t gone out in three nights. He says the man looks like a ghost, pale and unshaven, muttering in Coptic when he comes down to buy bread.
Host: Coptic. That’s the liturgical language of the Egyptian Christians, right? Why is he obsessed with that?
Julian: Because he believes it’s the ghost of the ancient Pharaonic language. He’s convinced that if he can map the sounds of Coptic to the symbols on the Rosetta Stone, he can make them speak. But he’s running out of time. His British rival, Thomas Young—a brilliant polymath, the man who proved light is a wave, no less—is actually here in Paris right now. Young published a partial solution three years ago. The academic tension in this city is thick enough to cut with a knife. I just saw a carriage rattle past carrying members of the Academy of Inscriptions; they look serious.
Host: So, what’s the specific breakthrough we’re waiting for? Young already identified some names, didn’t he?
Julian: Right. Young figured out that the cartouches—the oval loops—contained royal names like 'Ptolemy.' But Young thinks the rest of the hieroglyphs are just symbols, pictures for ideas, not sounds. Champollion is about to prove him wrong. He’s looking at sketches from a temple at Abu Simbel, sent by a friend. He’s focused on a cartouche that ends with the messy, s-shaped symbol.
Host: Okay, walk us through the moment. Are you going in?
Julian: I’m slipping into the building now. The concierge, a Madame Louise, is distracted yelling at a chimney sweep. The stairs are creaking... it’s dark in here. The air smells of old paper and lamp oil. I’m at the door. It’s slightly ajar.
Host: What do you see?
Julian: It’s chaos. Papers everywhere. Sketches of birds, snakes, beetles covering every inch of the floor. Champollion is there, hunched over a desk. He’s wearing a stained white shirt, sleeves rolled up. He’s trembling. He’s holding a piece of paper up to the light. He’s muttering... 'Thoth... mes... Thutmose?' He’s reading it! He’s realized the bird—the ibis—stands for the god Thoth, and the 'mes' is born. Thutmose. It’s not just pictures, Sarah. It’s a phonetic script. It’s a spoken language written in stone!
Host: This is it. This is the decipherment.
Julian: He’s grabbing his coat! He’s shoving the papers into a leather portfolio. He’s bolting for the door—I have to move! He’s running down the stairs, taking them two at a time!
Host: Follow him, Julian! Where is he going?
Julian: We’re back on the street! He’s sprinting towards the Seine! He’s heading for the Bibliothèque Royale on the Rue de Richelieu. That’s where his brother, Jacques-Joseph, works. People are staring—a madman running through Paris in the middle of the day! He’s dodging a water carrier... nearly knocked over a flower seller named Marie!
Host: Keep up with him!
Julian: I’m trying! He’s crossing the Pont des Arts now. He’s breathless, face flushed. He’s bursting into the library courtyard! He’s ignoring the guards! He’s running up the main staircase! I’m right behind him! He’s kicking open the door to his brother’s office!
Host: What is he saying?
Julian: He’s rushing up to Jacques-Joseph! He’s slamming the papers onto the desk! He’s shouting—listen!—'Je tiens mon affaire!'
"I’ve got it!"
Julian: 'Je tiens mon affaire!' And... oh my god. He’s collapsing. He just hit the floor. His brother is screaming for help. 'Jean-François! Jean-François!' It’s over. The adrenaline just left him. He’s out cold. But he’s done it. After two thousand years of silence, Ancient Egypt just spoke.
Host: Unbelievable. From an attic in Paris to the history books. Julian, incredible work. Get some water for yourself, and maybe check on the flower seller.
Julian: Will do. This is Julian, signing off from 1822.
Backgrounder Notes
Based on the text provided, here are key facts and concepts annotated with background information to enhance reader understanding:
Jean-François Champollion A French philologist and orientalist, Champollion is widely regarded as the father of Egyptology for his breakthrough in deciphering the Rosetta Stone. Unlike his predecessors, he was fluent in Coptic, which allowed him to bridge the gap between spoken Egyptian and the hieroglyphic script.
The Rosetta Stone Discovered by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799, this granodiorite stele is inscribed with a decree issued in 196 BC in three scripts: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Ancient Greek. Because scholars could read the Greek, the stone provided the essential key to deciphering the previously unreadable Egyptian scripts.
Coptic Language Coptic represents the final evolutionary stage of the ancient Egyptian language, written using the Greek alphabet heavily supplemented by characters derived from the Demotic script. Champollion correctly hypothesized that Coptic was not just a liturgical language for Egyptian Christians, but the living, spoken descendant of the language locked inside the hieroglyphs.
Thomas Young An English polymath and physicist famous for establishing the wave theory of light, Young was Champollion’s primary rival in the race to decipherment. While Young correctly identified that cartouches contained royal names (like Ptolemy), he failed to crack the code fully because he believed hieroglyphs were primarily symbolic rather than phonetic.
Cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval loop with a line at one end intended to highlight a royal name. This visual distinction was the critical starting point for decipherment, as it allowed scholars to isolate proper nouns from the rest of the text.
Abu Simbel This massive rock temple complex in southern Egypt was constructed by Ramses II in the 13th century BC. Champollion used copies of inscriptions from this site to identify the name "Ramses," proving that his phonetic system worked for native Egyptian pharaohs, not just foreign Greek rulers like the Ptolemies.
Thoth (and the Ibis) Thoth was the ancient Egyptian deity of writing, wisdom, and magic, traditionally depicted with the head of an ibis bird. By recognizing the bird symbol as an ideogram for the god Thoth, Champollion was able to combine it with phonetic symbols to read the name "Thutmose" (Born of Thoth).
Phonetic Script vs. Ideograms The central debate of decipherment was whether hieroglyphs were ideograms (symbols representing abstract ideas, like an eye meaning "to see") or phonograms (symbols representing spoken sounds, like an alphabet). Champollion’s breakthrough was the realization that hieroglyphs are a complex combination of both, serving as a "spoken language" written in images.
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Academy of Inscriptions) Founded in 1663, this prestigious French learned society is dedicated to the humanities, specifically history, archaeology, and linguistics. It was the governing body of academic acceptance in Paris, making the members mentioned in the text the ultimate judges of Champollion's success or failure.
Bibliothèque Royale (Royal Library) Now known as the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this institution was the center of intellectual life in Paris during the 19th century. Champollion’s brother, Jacques-Joseph, worked here as a curator/librarian, providing Jean-François with access to rare manuscripts and a professional base of operations.
Sources
-
wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Champollion
-
wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_in_the_Belle_%C3%89poque
-
wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel
-
college-de-france.frhttps://www.college-de-france.fr/en/news/champollion-1822-exhibition
-
wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Liszt
