Egyptology and Egyptologists

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Great advances have been made in the study of the Ancient Egyptian Civilization in the last two hundred years. In that time we have gone from having virtually no knowledge whatsoever, to being able to translate directly from the hieroglyphs on the walls of pyramids and temples with a high degree of accuracy. This giant leap forward in knowledge was thanks to a very fortunate find by a group of Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers as they secured Egypt for the French in 1798 and 1799. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries Rashid (the town known in the West as Rosetta) was an important port, lying at the mouth of the Nile, where the Rashid Tributary leaves for the Mediterranean Sea. Napoleon knew well its significance in securing a port for the supply of his troops as they swept across Egypt and fought hard to win control. Napoleon was a superb tactician -- he had no real desire to wrest Egypt from the Mamluk Turks for commercial reasons. He had only one intention as he pushed the Turks East, and that was to cut off the supply and trade route for the British to India. A party of French troops found a black basalt slab, near to the town of Rashid in 1799, inscribed in three languages. The slab was a tribute to the Egyptian King Ptolemy V, with the original hieroglyph, a more modern demotic script, and, the key to our knowledge of Ancient Egypt today, a Greek translation alongside carved in 196 BCE. The French returned control of Egypt to the English, and the Rosetta Stone (click image left to enlarge), as it had become known, was taken to London, where it can still be seen as a prize exhibit in the British Museum, in Bloomsbury. On arriving in London, the Stone was studied intently by Thomas Young, a West-country doctor and Egyptologist. Young had studied at London, Edinburgh, Gottingen and Cambridge, qualifying as a physician in 1800. From 1801 to 1803, Young was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution, and it was here that much of his pioneering work on deciphering the Stone was done. Between 1822 and 1824, the French Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion took up a close study of the Stone, and founded modern scientific Egyptology. These preliminary studies of the Stone allowed Egyptologists their first insight into the mind of the Ancient Egyptians. Things that were once hidden and meaningless began to become apparent, and this small seed of new knowledge soon allowed much more accurate translations of the previously attractive but ill understood hieroglyphics that adorned the walls of pyramids and tombs and temples all over Egypt. Many of the old theories were overturned and replaced by conclusions arrived at by scientific research. Foremost among the "classical" Egyptologists is the late E. A. Wallis Budge, 1857-1934. Budge was Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, and author of many books that form the basis of our understanding of Ancient Egypt. In particular he is remembered for his work in translating the Book of the Dead, and several hieroglyphic dictionaries, and self-teaching courses. Budge also translated numerous texts directly from the walls of later Fourth and Fifth Dynasty tombs, and cast an unbiased eye over many of the myths of the Egyptian deities and their legends. Much good work has been done over the last couple of centuries towards understanding something of Ancient Egyptian culture. Some of the most impressive work done in recent years, however, has to be the study of the astronomical significance of the pyramids by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert. They published their preliminary findings in the excellent book "The Orion Mystery" (click image right) published by Heinemann. They also made a documentary TV program last year that first drew them to the world’s attention. The views expressed in the book and documentaries were initially scorned by the academic mainstream Egyptologists. However, as the evidence strengthens their case, more and more people are coming on board and the "old school" are looking increasingly isolated. Source: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/piramides/esp_piramide_8.htm Write a comment...