Englishman Thomas Young made a giant leap forward in the interpretation of the Rosetta Stone, and in particular in understanding the sound and pronunciation of the ancient Egyptian language. The key is the cartouches, small groups of hieroglyphics surrounded by a continuous line, a kind of thin frame. He discovered that these words were framed because they represented the names of important figures, such as Ptolemaios (Ptolemy), Berenika (Berenice), or Cleopatra. Since the sound of these names must have been approximately the same in different languages, he came to understand the phonetics of several hieroglyphics. Then, in 1822, Frenchman Jean-François Champollion applied this methodology to other cartouches, and with a few assumptions (for example, scribes often tended to omit vowels, believing that a reader would guess them anyway, as with Alksentrs, which represents Alexander), Champollion succeeded in deciphering the Rosetta Stone. He bursts into his brother’s office and exclaims: “Je tiens l’affaire!”.
