Content deleted Content added
m Disambiguating links to Egyptomania (link changed to Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination) using DisamAssist. |
|||
Line 205:
Antiquarians living in Egypt, especially [[John Gardner Wilkinson]], were already applying Champollion's findings to the texts there. Champollion and Rosellini wanted to do so themselves, and together with some other scholars and artists they formed the Franco-Tuscan Expedition to Egypt.{{sfn|Thompson|2015a|pp=149–151, 166}} En route to Egypt Champollion stopped to look at a papyrus in the hands of a French antiquities dealer. It was a copy of the ''[[Instructions of Amenemhat|Instructions of King Amenemhat]]'', a work of [[sebayt|wisdom literature]] cast as posthumous advice from [[Amenemhat I]] to his son and successor. It became the first work of [[ancient Egyptian literature]] to be read, although Champollion could not read it well enough to fully understand what it was.{{sfn|Robinson|2012|pp=181–182}} In 1828 and 1829 the expedition travelled the length of the Egyptian course of the Nile, copying and collecting antiquities.{{sfn|Thompson|2015a|pp=166–170}} After studying countless texts Champollion felt certain that his system was applicable to hieroglyphic texts from every period of Egyptian history, and he apparently coined the term "determinative" while there.{{sfn|Robinson|2012|pp=200, 213}}
After returning from Egypt, Champollion spent much of his time working on a full description of the Egyptian language, but he had little time to complete it. Beginning in late 1831 he suffered a series of increasingly debilitating strokes, and he died in March 1832.{{sfn|Robinson|2012|pp=226, 235}}
===Mid-nineteenth century===
| |||