The deciphering of ancient writings is still topical two years after Champollion's discovery of hieroglyphs.
These finds nevertheless remain quite rare and many writings have not yet been decoded.
François Desset, the "modern Champollion", tells
20 Minutes
how he himself achieved the feat in 2020.
Even in the 21st century, discoveries continue.
Two hundred years after the decipherment of the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt by Champollion in 1822, many mysteries surround the undeciphered ancient writings.
To decipher these signs, which must be clearly distinguished from a language, "there is no common method, no rule", explains to
20 Minutes
François Desset, researcher attached to the University of Tehran and to the laboratory CNRS Archéorient (Lyon).
Nicknamed the “modern Champollion” by some, François Desset, himself at the origin of a decryption, lists the different scripts that are known but whose code has not revealed its secrets.
Among them, Linear A (used in Crete in the 2nd millennium BC), the Indus script (used in Pakistan and India in the 3rd millennium BC), Proto-Elamite which comes from Iran around 3000 BC or the Rongorongo of the Easter Islands discovered at the end of the 18th century.
And to translate them, no Rosetta stone like the one that helped the French philologist Jean-François Champollion.
But based on what we already know.
How did Champollion do it?
It is also mainly thanks to this method that the Frenchman studied in the history books was able to make this major discovery.
"He was lucky that the hieroglyphs noted a language, ancient Egyptian, which was still spoken in a more recent version: Coptic", develops François Desset.
And precisely, Champollion was a champion of Coptic, he mastered it which made it easier for him to decipher the writing which noted a recent version of this language.
Moreover, he was helped by the knowledge, at the time, of several names of Egyptian kings, such as Cleopatra, Ptolemy or even Ramses.
"The Egyptians had noted them in cartouches, sorts of bubbles, which made it possible to identify them among the other signs", adds the researcher.
The Rosetta stone came to complete these two elements already determining in the decipherment of hieroglyphs.
How do you decipher scripts?
It is somewhat the same method that is applied today.
We are looking for signs that can be linked to what we already know about the civilization studied through writing.
François Desset himself deciphered a script called Linear Elamite, a script used in the southern half of present-day Iran between 2300 and 1900 BC.
A rare and rather exceptional fact.
It had been since the 1950's that an ancient script had not been deciphered in this way.
Especially since discovering a new writing is also unusual.
The latest, described by the researcher as "geometric", dates back to 2006, again in Iran.
But there are only three or four texts and François Desset could not advance the decipherment of the latter.
On the other hand, for Linear Elamite, he relied on texts that began to be discovered from 1903. “When I took over the dossier in 2006, there were only six or seven correct readings of the 'writing', he recalls, and it was the publication of a new body of text as well as the discovery of silver vases in a private collection that enabled him to put the pieces back together.
Again, it was thanks to the names of the kings that he was able to decode 96% of the signs in November 2020.
What do they teach us?
Some of the texts deciphered by François Desset are an opportunity for the sovereigns of the time to ask the god Napiresha (meaning “the great god” in the Elamite language) for fortune in exchange for their devotion.
This then tells us what relationship the kings had with religion, such as making an offering in order to receive from the deity.
"It's typical of archaic religions," he explains.
The new Champollions still continue today to contribute their stone to the building of ancient history and its mysteries.
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