The author conveys a respectful appreciation for Thomas Young's contributions to deciphering hieroglyphs, despite acknowledging his mistakes and limited understanding. Young's achievement of correctly identifying three out of seven symbols was a significant milestone, the author notes, as it was a better score than any previous scholar had achieved. Moreover, the passage emphasizes that Young laid a solid groundwork for future scholars, particularly mentioning Jean-Francois Champollion, which suggests admiration for Young's efforts despite the challenges he faced due to his misconceptions.
Young made several mistakes. He thought the third hieroglyph was part of the one for “T,” whereas it actually stood for the vowel “O.” The fourth hieroglyph, the lion, meant just “L,” the fifth meant “M,” and the last hieroglyph stood simply for “S.” In other words, the spelling in Egyptian was “Ptolmis,” not “Ptolemaios.”
But Young got three out of the seven symbols right, which was a better score than any scholar before him had achieved.
Young published his findings in an article written for the 1819 supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He continued to work on the problem of the hieroglyphs in the years that followed, but made little headway in deciphering additional names and words. Why? Largely because he was working under a false assumption.
Like countless other scholars over the centuries, Young still believed that most of the hieroglyphs must have a symbolic meaning. Only in special cases, such as foreign names, did he think that they were used to represent sounds.
Because of this mistaken belief, Young put roadblocks in his own path. However, he had laid a solid groundwork for others in their attempts to decipher the hieroglyphs. And a young Frenchman, Jean-Francois Champollion, was ready to take up the challenge where Young had left off.
—The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone,
James Cross Giblin
Based on the passage, write two or three sentences explaining how the author feels about Thomas Young. Support your answer with examples from the reading.
1 answer