1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910686475303321

Autore

Messling Markus

Titolo

Philology and the Appropriation of the World : Champollion’s Hieroglyphs / / by Markus Messling

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2023

ISBN

9783031128943

303112894X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2023.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XX, 187 p. 27 illus.)

Collana

Socio-Historical Studies of the Social and Human Sciences, , 2946-4927

Disciplina

306.43

409.2

Soggetti

Educational sociology

Middle Eastern literature

Imperialism

Culture

Sociology of Education

Middle Eastern Literature

Imperialism and Colonialism

Sociology of Culture

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

1. Other Narratives of a Grand History -- 2. Philology and Nationalism -- 3. Knowledge and Method: The Parisian Legacy -- 4. Civilisational Genealogies: Where Does Europe Come from? -- 5. Scientific Recognition: Showdown in Rome -- 6. History of Materials: Predatory Exploitation on the Nile and the Idea of Protecting Cultural Goods -- 7. Note to the Attention of the Viceroy for the Conservation of the Monuments of Egypt.

Sommario/riassunto

This book sheds new light on the work of Jean-François Champollion by uncovering a constellation of epistemological, political, and material conditions that made his decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs possible. Champollion’s success in understanding hieroglyphs, first published in his Lettre à M. Dacier in 1822, is emblematic of the



triumphant achievements of comparative philology during the 19th Century. Yet, precisely because of its success, his project also reveals the costs it entailed: after examining and welcoming acquisitions for the emerging Egyptian collections in Europe, Champollion travelled to the Nile Valley in 1828/29, where he was shocked by the damage that had been done to its ancient cultural sites. The letter he wrote to the Egyptian viceroy Mehmet Ali Pasha in 1829 demands that excavations in Egypt be regulated, denounces European looting, and represents perhaps the first document to make a case for the international protection of cultural goods in the name of humanity.