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Code Breaking |
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Code Breaking |
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| We know so much about the Ancient
Egyptians because they loved writing, especially on walls. They used a kind of
picture writing called hieroglyphics. But there was one problem. As the centuries went by there was no one left who could remember how to read egyptian!! Sounds incredible, but it's true. Walls full of writing, papyrus scrolls .... that no-one could read. |
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In 1799 a stone was found at Rosetta in
Northern Egypt. There were three kinds of writing on it. At the bottom the writing was in
Greek, in the middle Demotic and at the top ... hieroglyphics,
demotic and Greek. It was a wonderful stroke of luck. People could read Greek and Demotic .... the stone told the same story in both languages. So the same story must be told in hieroglyphics too. Unfortunately the clever people still couldn't work out what each hieroglyph meant. |
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Then in 1822, a frenchman, Jean-Francois Champollion, managed to work things out. He discovered that many of the hieroglyphs stood for a single sound. Some were for 'ideas' .... soon Archaeologists were able to read the walls and rediscover the mysteries of Egypt. |
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