Demotic (Egyptian) - Decipherment

Decipherment

The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799. It is inscribed with three scripts; classical Greek and both Demotic and hieroglyphic Egyptian. There are 32 lines of Demotic, which is the middle of the three scripts on the stone. The Demotic was deciphered before the hieroglyphs, starting with the efforts of Silvestre de Sacy. Scholars were eventually able to translate the Egyptian glyphs by comparing the Greek words, which could be readily translated, and the Egyptian hieroglyphs, in addition to their existing knowledge of Coptic. Egyptologists, linguists and papyrologists who specialize in the study of the Demotic stage of Egyptian script are known as Demotists.