When they mentioned Champollion’s name, your reporter had a reaction probably common to many of you: “I heard this at school.” And in fact, Jean-François Champollion entered school books and not just those for a truly memorable undertaking: he was the first to find a way to decipher hieroglyphs, that particular form of writing to which the ancient Egyptians had entrusted their messages. and their culture.
A Museum Hall (Dominique Viet – CRT Occitanie)
Egyptologist and polyglot specialist in oriental languages, history teacher in Grenoble at only 19 years (!), Had the intuition to treat hieroglyphic writing as a writing not different from the others and, based on the famous Rosetta stone in which a hieroglyphic text paired with its Greek version, he found the key to its complete decryption. He wrote a grammar and a dictionary, all based only on reading and books as Champollion made the first field expedition, to Egypt, only in 1828.
Very well but why bother here? For two reasons: Champollion published the results of his investigation and his discovery in 1822, that is exactly two centuries ago, and his hometown, which did not wait to honor him, will plan special initiatives around the museum dedicated to him.
Bust of Champollion (Patrice Thebault – CRT Occitanie)
We are in Figeac, in French Occitania, at the gates of the fascinating area of the Causses Park, not far from the famous Rocamadour and in the center of the quadrilateral at the ends of which we find Rodez, Cahors, Aurillac and Brive-la-Gaillarde. Region of strong flavors, of truffles and “terrines” and extraordinary prehistoric sites, the one around Figeac but we are now interested in the Musée Champollion – Les Ecritures du monde, opened in 1986 in the house in the heart of the medieval center of the city which, in 1790, saw the birth of the future Egyptologist.
Detail of a sarcophagus (Patrice Thebault – CRT Occitanie)
As the name implies, the museum, created to document the discovery of Champollion, has broadened its perspective with an important enlargement launched in 2007 and focused on a real journey through time and space through the fascinating world of writing.
Visiting it, thanks to the path that starts from clay tablets up to digital tablets, is in itself of great interest and is a great opportunity to reflect, even as a layman, on the fundamental role of writing in culture and civilization, indeed, in civilizations. .
At the back of the Museum, between the walls of ancient buildings, is the Place des Ecritures which houses the installation by Joseph Kosuth “Ex Libris J.-F. Champollion (Figeac)”. It is a huge slab of dark granite which reproduces the text of the Rosetta stone and, more hidden, its translation. Next to it, green terraces planted with papyrus and tamarisks to evoke the Egypt of Champollion. And the real stele? To see it you have to go to London, to the British Museum, but only after visiting Figeac.
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Info on Figeac and the museum www.tourisme-figeac.com/figeac-cite-de-champollion
Info on the Museum www.musee-champollion.fr
Info on Occitania www.tourisme-occitanie.com
Info about France (in Italian) https://it.france.fr/it