The Role of Greek in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs

Date: Thursday 8 June 2023 @ 7pm Melbourne
Location: Mezzanine, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Presenter: Dr Andrew Connor

Language of Presentation: English
Entry: FREE

Synopsis

The decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs transformed the study of ancient Egypt, opening up the literature and documents of three millennia for public study and appreciation. The story of this decipherment is an international one, involving scholars from Egypt, France, and the United Kingdom, among others. This breakthrough—famously made by the French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion—was also a product of Greek language and history. Using the Rosetta Stone as a central feature, this talk will explore why the Stone was created, what it commemorates, how it ended up on display in the British Museum, and why the Greek text inscribed on it proved so pivotal to Champollion’s efforts. This both an ancient and a modern story: an exploration of how Greek helped Macedonian monarchs, Egyptian priests, and 19th century scholars to make sense of the complex world of the eastern Mediterranean in antiquity—and how it created a global icon along the way!

Bio

Andrew Connor is the Lecturer in Ancient History in the Centre for Ancient Cultures at Monash University. He teaches the history and archaeology of Classical Greece, the Hellenistic world, and the Roman Empire, as well as the ancient Greek and Latin languages. His research explores society, religion, and the economy in Egypt under Ptolemaic and Roman rule, and in particular studies Greek-language documents preserved on papyrus. His recent book, Confiscation or Coexistence: Egyptian Temples in the Age of Augustus is out now from the University of Michigan Press.