Hieroglyphs
I’ve just caught up with last night’s episode of the BBC’s superb Egypt drama/documentary.
Easily the best of the series to date, it followed the (first half of the) story of the Rosetta Stone and the decyphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Being politically correct, it skirted over some of the mirkier aspects surrounding the achievement. Obviously not wanting to offend our French neighbours, Champollion was painted as more of a lone-worker than I have previously been led to believe he was. Champollion never publicly recognised the significance of the contribution Thomas Young made to his work, and Young’s efforts seem to have been down-played in the drama too.
Aside from the view of history slightly more skewed towards Europe, this is a fascinating story brought to life by the BBC. All credit to them on a brilliant series so far.
