The last known Hieroglyphic text is a graffito dated to 394 CE. Knowledge of this ancient writing system disappeared once all non-Christian temples in Egypt were closed by the Romans, and with it, 3000 years of Egypt’s history. Myths surrounding the meaning of these mysterious writings emerged. Medieval scholars read allegorical meanings into the elaborate epigraphs, always assuming that the hieroglyphs recorded ‘ideas’, but were never able to divine their meaning. For nearly 15 centuries, the writing system resisted decipherment. In 1822, the French scholar F. Champollion unlocked the script and with it a lost language – Ancient Egyptian. The next decades saw nearly the millennia of lost history restored. But how was this accomplished? The decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs is but one story in the decipherment of forgotten writing systems and lost languages in the 19th and 20th centuries. This class will examine 6 great decipherments, how scholars were able to crack the code, the nature of these writing systems, and the languages, cultures, and history unlocked. We will look in detail at what methods epigraphists and linguists used to accomplish this and what gaps remain in our understanding. The second part of the course will turn to undeciphered scripts. We will examine various attempts by scholars to decode this group of writing systems and why they continue to resist decipherment, with due attention to how, in some cases, colonialism led to the loss of cultural and historical knowledge.
PreReq: None
Credit Hours: 3
TuTh 11:10AM - 12:30 PM (IN PERSON)
Al-Jallad
Class Number #36263