In the Beginning was Information
6KezkB
6KezkB
- No tags were found...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
and <strong>the</strong>re are 468 Greek words. This stone, known as <strong>the</strong> RosettaStone (Figure 10), is now in <strong>the</strong> possession of <strong>the</strong> British Museumin London. It played a key role in <strong>the</strong> deciphering of hieroglyphics,and its first success <strong>was</strong> <strong>the</strong> translation of an Egyptian pictorial textin 1822 8 .Because <strong>the</strong> meaning of <strong>the</strong> entire text <strong>was</strong> found, it <strong>was</strong> establishedthat <strong>the</strong> hieroglyphics really represented information. Today<strong>the</strong> meanings of <strong>the</strong> hieroglyphic symbols are known, and anybodywho knows this script is able to translate ancient Egyptian texts.Since <strong>the</strong> meaning of <strong>the</strong> codes is known (again), it is now possibleto transcribe English text into hieroglyphics, as is shown in Figure11, where <strong>the</strong> corresponding symbols have been produced bymeans of a computer/plotter system.This illustrative example has now clarified some basic principlesabout <strong>the</strong> nature of information. Fur<strong>the</strong>r details follow.8 Decoding of hieroglyphics: The Greek text <strong>was</strong> easy to read and to translate,and already in Cairo it <strong>was</strong> found to be a homage to king Ptolemy inscribed bypriests of Memphis in <strong>the</strong> year 196 BC. With <strong>the</strong> obvious assumption that <strong>the</strong>contents of all three texts were identical, it appeared to be possible to decipher<strong>the</strong> pictorial writing symbol by symbol. This assumption proved to be correct,but <strong>the</strong> decoding process took quite some time, since a 1400 years old presuppositionstood in <strong>the</strong> way. Horapollon, an Eqyptian living in <strong>the</strong> fourth century,described hieroglyphics as being a purely pictorial script, as it indeed seemed tobe. But this assumption resulted in some grotesque findings. When studying <strong>the</strong>Demotic text, a Swedish linguist, Åkerblad, recognised all <strong>the</strong> proper namesappearing in <strong>the</strong> Greek version, as well as <strong>the</strong> words for “temple” and “Greeks”.Subsequently Thomas Young, a medical physicist, recognised <strong>the</strong> namesBerenice and Cleopatra in <strong>the</strong> cartouches (<strong>the</strong> symbol groups appearing in <strong>the</strong>ovals in <strong>the</strong> sixth line from <strong>the</strong> top in Figure 10). <strong>In</strong>stead of looking for pictorialsymbols, Young boldly suggested that <strong>the</strong> pictures were phonetic symbols representingsounds or letters. But he <strong>was</strong> just as reluctant as everybody else to pursuethis idea – ano<strong>the</strong>r example of <strong>the</strong> inhibiting effect that presuppositionshave on <strong>the</strong> truth. The eventual breakthrough <strong>was</strong> made by <strong>the</strong> French founderof Egyptology, Jean Francois Champollion (1790 – 1832). He correlated singlehieroglyphic symbols with <strong>the</strong> corresponding Greek letters appearing in <strong>the</strong>names Ptolemy and Cleopatra, and could <strong>the</strong>n begin with <strong>the</strong> deciphering.51