Thomas Young and the Rosetta Stone

Who deciphered the Rosetta Stone and the Egyptian hieroglyphs? The usual answer is Jean-François Champollion, beginning in 1822. But ever since that time, Egyptologists have debated the role of his rival, the polymath Thomas Young, the first person to publish a partially correct translation of the Rosetta Stone. A recent BBC television dramatisation rekindled the controversy by presenting Champollion as a ‘lone genius’ who succeeded independently of Young. While there is no doubt that Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphic script as a whole, the evidence suggests that Young's early detailed study of the Rosetta Stone created the conceptual framework that made possible Champollion's later breakthrough.