Read the excerpt from The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone by James Cross Giblin.
Some of these scholars made otherwise significant contributions to the world's knowledge of ancient Egypt. A German priest of the 1600s, Athanasius Kircher, wrote the first grammar and vocabulary of Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt. These books were to prove of great value when the hieroglyphs were eventually deciphered.
But Kircher's ideas about the hieroglyphs themselves were even farther off the mark than those of Horapollo. Looking at a certain group of symbols—which actually stood for the name of a pharaoh—Kircher let his imagination run wild. Without any evidence to support him, he said that the hieroglyphs meant "The blessings of the god Osiris are to be procured by means of sacred ceremonies, in order that the benefits of the river Nile may be obtained."
From 1650 onward, Kircher produced several volumes of such nonsense. It earned him a reputation for being an expert on the hieroglyphs—a reputation that lasted, unfortunately, long after his death in 1680.
Which sentence from this excerpt is a fact?
Looking at a certain group of symbols—which actually stood for the name of a pharaoh—Kircher let his imagination run wild.
Some of these scholars made otherwise significant contributions to the world's knowledge of ancient Egypt.
A German priest of the 1600s, Athanasius Kircher, wrote the first grammar and vocabulary of Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt.
From 1650 onward, Kircher produced several volumes of such nonsense.
