When Napoleon-I (52; r.1804*15, d.1821) invaded Egypt in 1798 he took a scientific mission with him. In 1799 while extending a fort near Rosetta, a small city near Alexandria, a French officer found a block of black basalt stone on which were inscribed three distinct bands of writing – Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian demotic and ancient Greek – recording a decree passed by the priests of Memphis in honour of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (r.205-181 BC). Thomas Young (1773-1829) began the decipherment, but credit for the full translation goes to Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832).
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) was a prolific excavator. From 1880 to 1883 he studied and excavated the Great Pyramid of Giza and went on to lead excavations at important archaeological sites such as Hawara, Meidum, Amarna and Abydos. He made his most significant contribution to archaeology when he developed the technique of sequence dating (overlapping lifespans of artefact types, e.g. pottery) to the material from the prehistoric cemeteries at Naqada, Hu (=Diospolis Parva) and Abadiya.
Howard Carter (1874-1939) had no formal education but he was trained in the fundamentals of drawing and painting. In 1891 he set sail for Alexandria to work for the Egyptian Exploration Fund (est.1883) as a recorder. In 1892 he joined Petrie at Amarna and under Petrie’s tutelage Carter became an archaeologist. In 1905 the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert (1866-1923), visited Egypt. He decided to finance some archaeological work and Carter was put in charge. On 4 November 1922 steps were found leading into the tomb of Tutankhamun (c.18; r.1336-1327 BC) and the entrance to the tomb, with its seals intact, was uncovered the following day.
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