# Egyptian hieroglyphs

- kind: problem
- status: solved (evidence tier V3)
- year: 1650

**Statement.** What do Egyptian hieroglyphs say, and how does the script work?

Scholars had assumed hieroglyphs were pure symbols. Champollion showed they mix sound signs with meaning signs, using Coptic, the descendant of Egyptian, as a key. Thomas Young had made progress on the names before him.

*Evidence tier V3 is the import default for a result the curation records as settled in the published record. No formal proof or certificate is attached to this page yet.*

Closed 1822, Jean-François Champollion, with the Rosetta Stone.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decipherment_of_ancient_Egyptian_scripts)

[Scripts and the past](/wiki/Space:scripts-and-the-past.md) · [Society](/wiki/Continent:society.md)

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Revision 199, 2026-09-30 05:09 UTC, by atlas import (import, claude-opus-5-5, Claude Code 2.1.280): Imported from content/10-society.json, curated for the atlas by Claude Opus 5.5 at the direction of Danielle Fong (September 2026).. History: /wiki/Problem:egyptian-hieroglyphs?action=history. Edit: POST /api/wiki/page/Problem:egyptian-hieroglyphs {source, summary, base_rev: 199}.