2022–2023 Opening Symposium
On September 22, 1822, Jean-François Champollion, in a state of extreme excitement, completed his famous Letter to Monsieur Dacier, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. In it, he explained how he had unraveled the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs: it is the seminal text on their decipherment.
To celebrate the bicentennial of this event, this year’s opening symposium will focus on the theme: “Decipherment(s): From Hieroglyphs to DNA.”
Experts will present the history of deciphering certain ancient scripts, as well as the challenges of decipherment in many other fields: the sciences of the universe, biology, cryptography, linguistics, and, finally, hermeneutics and the interpretation of works of art.
Organizing Committee
Professors Dominique Charpin and Xavier Leroy, along with Professors Françoise Combes, Jean-Luc Fournet, Sonia Garel, and William Marx.