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Georg Friedrich Grotefend (9 June 1775 – 15 December 1853) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
epigraphist Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
and
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
. He is known mostly for his contributions toward the decipherment of
cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...
. Georg Friedrich Grotefend had a son, named
Carl Ludwig Grotefend Carl Ludwig Grotefend (22 December 1807 – 27 October 1874) was a German epigraphist, philologist and numismat. He played a key role in the decipherment of the Indian Kharoshthi script on the coinage of the Indo-Greek kings, around the same time a ...
, who played a key role in the decipherment of the Indian
Kharoshthi The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and e ...
script on the coinage of the
Indo-Greek The Indo-Greek Kingdom, or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, also known historically as the Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya), was a Hellenistic-era Greek kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent ( ...
kings, around the same time as James Prinsep, publishing ''Die unbekannte Schrift der Baktrischen Münzen'' ("The unknown script of the Bactrian coins") in 1836.


Life

He was born at
Hann. Münden Hann. Münden (short for Hannoversch Münden) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. Münden lies in the district of Göttingen (district), Göttingen at the confluence of the Fulda River, Fulda and Werra rivers, which join to form the Weser. It ha ...
and died in
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
. He was educated partly in his native town, partly at
Ilfeld Ilfeld is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bährethal, north from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode. Since 1 J ...
, where he remained till 1795, when he entered the
University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, and there became the friend of Heyne,
Tychsen Tychsen is a typical Danish surname meaning son of Tycho/Tych after the Danish patronymic naming system. The German form of the name is Tuxen. Tychsen ranks in the top 1000 names in Denmark according to Larsen, Danmarks Statitik 2004. Both notabl ...
and
Heeren Heeren is a village and a former municipality in the Stendal (district), district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Stendal,prorector Academic rank (also scientific rank) is the rank of a scientist or teacher in a college, high school, university or research establishment. The academic ranks indicate relative importance and power of individuals in academia. The academic rank ...
of the gymnasium of
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, and shortly afterwards as conrector. In 1821 he became director of the gymnasium at Hanover, a post which he retained until his retirement in 1849. One year before retiring he received a medal commemorating his 50th anniversary of working at the gymnasium. This medal made by the local engraver Heinrich Friedrich Brehmer links Grotefends jubilee with the 500th anniversary of the school he taught at. Both occasions were celebrated on 2nd of February 1848.


Work


Philology

Grotefend was best known during his lifetime as a
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
, though the attention he paid to his own language is shown by his ''Anfangsgründe der deutschen Poesie'', published in 1815, and his foundation of a society for investigating the German tongue in 1817. In 1823/1824 he published his revised edition of
Helfrich Bernhard Wenck 200px, Helfrich Bernhard Wenck Helfrich Bernhard Wenck (19 June 1739 – 27 April 1803) was a German historian and educator born in Idstein, Hesse. He attended the Darmstadt Pädagogium, where his father, Johann Martin Wenck, served as rec ...
's ''Latin grammar'', in two volumes, followed by a smaller grammar for the use of schools in 1826; in 1835–1838 a systematic attempt to explain the fragmentary remains of the Umbrian dialect, entitled ''Rudimenta linguae Umbricae ex inscriptionibus antiquis enodata'' (in eight parts); and in 1839 a work of similar character upon
Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including ...
(''Rudimenta linguae Oscae''). In the same year his son
Carl Ludwig Grotefend Carl Ludwig Grotefend (22 December 1807 – 27 October 1874) was a German epigraphist, philologist and numismat. He played a key role in the decipherment of the Indian Kharoshthi script on the coinage of the Indo-Greek kings, around the same time a ...
published a memoir on the coins of Bactria, under the name of ''Die Münzen der griechischen, parthischen und indoskythischen Könige von Baktrien und den Ländern am Indus''. He soon, however, returned to his favourite subject, and brought out a work in five parts, ''Zur Geographie und Geschichte von Alt-Italien'' (1840–1842). Previously, in 1836, he had written a preface to
Friedrich Wagenfeld Friedrich Wagenfeld (January 3, 1810 – August 26, 1846) was a German philologist and author born in Bremen. Life Wegenfeld was born in Bremen in 1810.Sanchoniathon Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from Phoenician: , "Sakon has given"), also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial paraphras ...
'' of Philo of Byblos, which was alleged to have been discovered in the preceding year in the Portuguese convent of Santa Maria de Merinhão.


Old Persian cuneiform

But it was in the East rather than in the West that Grotefend did his greatest work. The Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions of
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
had for some time been attracting attention in Europe; exact copies of them had been published by
Jean Chardin Jean Chardin (16 November 1643 – 5 January 1713), born Jean-Baptiste Chardin, and also known as Sir John Chardin, was a French jeweller and traveller whose ten-volume book ''The Travels of Sir John Chardin'' is regarded as one of the finest ...
in 1711,Kent, R. G.: "Old Persian: Grammar Texts Lexicon", page 9. American Oriental Society, 1950. the
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
artist
Cornelis de Bruijn Cornelis de Bruijn or Cornelius de Bruyn (; 16521726/7), also formerly known in English by his French language, French name Corneille Le Brun, was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his obser ...
and the German traveller Niebuhr, who lost his eyesight over the work; and Grotefend's friend, Tychsen of Rostock, believed that he had ascertained the characters in the column, now known to be Persian, to be alphabetic. At this point Grotefend took the matter up. Having a taste for puzzles, he made a bet with drinking friends around 1800 that he could decipher at least part of the Persepolis inscriptions. His first discovery was communicated to the Royal Society of Göttingen in 1802, Sayce, Rev. A. H., Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
"The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions"
Second Edition-revised, 1908, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, Brighton, New York; at pages 10-1
Not in copyright
/ref> but his findings were dismissed by these academics. His work was denied official publication, but Tychsen published a review of Grotefend's work in the literary gazette of Göttingen in September 1802, which presented the argument made by Grotenfend. In 1815, Grotefend was only able to give an account of his theories in the work of his friend Heeren on ancient history. His article appeared as an appendix in Heeren's book on historical research and was entitled ''"On the Interpretation of the Arrow-headed Characters, particularly of the Inscriptions at Persepolis"''.


Decipherment method

Grotefend had focused on two inscriptions from
Persepolis , native_name_lang = , alternate_name = , image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis. , map = , map_type ...
, called the " Niebuhr inscriptions", which seemed to have broadly similar content except for the name of the rulers. File:Niebuhr inscription 1.jpg, Niebuhr inscription 1. Now known to mean "Darius the Great King, King of Kings, King of countries, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, who built this Palace". File:Niebuhr inscription 2.jpg, Niebuhr inscription 2: Now known to mean "Xerxes the Great King, King of Kings, son of Darius the King, an Achaemenian". In 1802,
Friedrich Münter Friedrich Christian Carl Heinrich Münter (14 October 1761 – 9 April 1830) was a German-Danish scholar, theologian, and Bishop of Zealand from 1808 until his death. His name has also been recorded as Friederich Münter. In addition to his posit ...
had realized that recurring groups of characters must be the word for "king" (, now known to be pronounced . He also understood from Münter that each word was separated from the next by a slash sign (). Grotefend extended this work by realizing, based on the known inscriptions of much later rulers (the Pahlavi inscriptions of the
Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
kings), that a king's name is often followed by "great king, king of kings" and the name of the king's father.Kent, R. G.: "Old Persian: Grammar Texts Lexicon", page 10. American Oriental Society, 1950. This understanding of the structure of monumental inscriptions in Old Persian was based on the work of
Anquetil-Duperron Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (7 December 173117 January 1805) was the first professional French Indologist. He conceived the institutional framework for the new profession. He inspired the founding of the École française d'Extrême-Orien ...
, who had studied Old Persian through the
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the lit ...
s in India, and
Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (; 21 September 175821 February 1838), was a French French nobility, nobleman, linguist and oriental studies, orientalist. His son, Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy, became a journalist. Life and works Early life ...
, who had decrypted the monumental Pahlavi inscriptions of the
Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
kings. File:Niebuhr inscription 1 with word for King.jpg, Niebuhr inscription 1, with the words "King" () highlighted. File:Niebuhr inscription 2 with word for King.jpg, Niebuhr inscription 2, with the words "King" highlighted. Looking at similarities in character sequences, he made the hypothesis that the father of the ruler in one inscription would possibly appear as the first name in the other inscription: the first word in Niebuhr 1 () indeed corresponded to the 6th word in Niebuhr 2. Looking at the length of the character sequences, and comparing with the names and genealogy of the Achaemenid kings as known from the Greeks, also taking into account the fact that the father of one of the rulers in the inscriptions didn't have the attribute "king", he made the correct guess that this could be no other than Darius the Great, his father Hystaspes who was not a king, and his son the famous Xerxes. In Persian history around the time period the inscriptions were expected to be made, there were only two instances where a ruler came to power without being a previous king's son. They were Darius the Great and Cyrus the Great, both of whom became emperor by revolt. The deciding factors between these two choices were the names of their fathers and sons. Darius's father was Hystaspes and his son was Xerxes, while Cyrus' father was
Cambyses I Cambyses I ( peo, 𐎣𐎲𐎢𐎪𐎡𐎹 ''Kabūjiya'') was king of Anshan from c. 580 to 559 BC and the father of Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II), younger son of Cyrus I, and brother of Arukku. He should not be confused with his bette ...
and his son was Cambyses II. Within the text, the father and son of the king had different groups of symbols for names so Grotefend assumed that the king must have been Darius. These connections allowed Grotefend to figure out the cuneiform characters that are part of Darius, Darius's father Hystaspes, and Darius's son Xerxes. He equated the letters with the name ''d-a-r-h-e-u-sh'' for Darius. This identification was correct, although the actual Persian spelling was ''da-a-ra-ya-va-u-sha'', but this was unknown at the time. Grotefend similarly equated the sequence with ''kh-sh-h-e-r-sh-e'' for Xerxes, which again was right, but the actual Old Persian transcription was ''kha-sha-ya-a-ra-sha-a''. Finally, he matched the sequence of the father who was not a king with Hystaspes, but again with the supposed Persian reading of ''g-o-sh-t-a-s-p'', rather than the actual Old Persian ''vi-i-sha-ta-a-sa-pa''. By this method, Grotefend had correctly identified each king in the inscriptions, but his identification of the phonetical value of individual letters was still quite defective, for want of a better understanding of the Old Persian language itself. Grotefend identified correctly the phonetical value of only eight letters among the thirty signs he had collated. However groundbreaking, this inductive method failed to convince academics, and the official recognition of his work was denied for nearly a generation.


Vindication

It was only in 1823 that Grotefend's discovery was confirmed, when the French archaeologist Champollion, who had just deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs, was able to read the Egyptian dedication of a quadrilingual hieroglyph-cuneiform inscription on an alabaster vase in the
Cabinet des Médailles The BnF Museum or Museum of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, formerly known as the Cabinet des Médailles, is a significant art and history museum in Paris. It displays collections of the ''Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques ...
, the "
Caylus vase The Caylus vase is an Egyptian alabaster jar dedicated in the name of the Achaemenid king Xerxes I (c.518–465 BCE) in Egyptian hieroglyph and Old Persian cuneiform. Beyond its historical value as a dynastic artifact of Achaemenid Egypt, its qu ...
". The Egyptian inscription on the vase was in the name of King
Xerxes I Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of D ...
, and Champollion, together with the orientalist
Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin (17 January 1791 – 17 July 1832) was a French academic, orientalist, and pioneer in the field of what would be known as Armenian Studies. Biography Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin was born in Paris on 17 January 1791, th ...
, was able to confirm that the corresponding words in the cuneiform script were indeed the words which Grotefend had identified as meaning "king" and "Xerxes" through guesswork.Pages 10-14, note 1 on page 13 The findings were published by Saint-Martin in ''Extrait d'un mémoire relatif aux antiques inscriptions de Persépolis lu à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres'', thereby vindicating the pioneering work of Grotefend.


Later publications

In 1837 Grotefend published his ''Neue Beiträge zur Erläuterung der persepolitanischen Keilschrift''. Three years later appeared his ''Neue Beiträge zur Erläuterung der babylonischen Keilschrift''. His discovery may be summed up as follows: #that the Persian inscriptions contain three different forms of cuneiform writing, so that the decipherment of the one would give the key to the decipherment of the others #that the characters of the Persian column are alphabetic and not syllabic #confirmed Niebuhr's observation that they must be read from left to right #that the alphabet consists of forty letters, including signs for long and short vowels #that the Persepolitan inscriptions are written in Avestan (though today this is distinguished from Old Persian), and must be ascribed to the age of the Achaemenian princes #that a specific frequent word could refer to the Persian word for "king" #that the inscriptions satisfy the two following schemes: A) X king, great king of king, son of Y king; B) Y king, great king of king, son of Z; #that the presence of the two schemes A) and B) gives an opportunity to identify the people involved; it is necessary that X was a Persian king, his father was a Persian king too, ''but'' his grandfather was ''not'' king #according to this idea Grotefend was able to identify X for Xerxes, Y for Darius and Z with Hystaspes. A basis had now been laid for the interpretation of the Persian inscriptions. However, Grotefend misconstrued several important characters. Significant work remained to be done to complete the decipherment. Building on Grotefend's insights, this task was performed by
Eugène Burnouf Eugène Burnouf (; April 8, 1801May 28, 1852) was a French scholar, an Indologist and orientalist. His notable works include a study of Sanskrit literature, translation of the Hindu text ''Bhagavata Purana'' and Buddhist text ''Lotus Sutra''. He ...
,
Christian Lassen Christian Lassen (22 October 1800 – 8 May 1876) was a Norwegian-born, German orientalist and Indologist. He was a professor of Old Indian language and literature at the University of Bonn. Biography He was born at Bergen, Norway where he att ...
and
Sir Henry Rawlinson Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. His son, also Henry, was to bec ...
.


Later instances

A decipherment method broadly similar to that of Grotefend was used by CNRS researcher François Desset in 2018-2020, to advance the decipherment of
Linear Elamite Linear Elamite was a writing system used in Elam during the Bronze Age between , and known mainly from a few extant monumental inscriptions. It was used contemporaneously with Elamite cuneiform and records the Elamite language. The French archae ...
.


See also

* Friedrich August Grotefend, German philologist and relative of Georg Friedrich * Champollion


Notes


References

*


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grotefend 1775 births 1853 deaths University of Göttingen alumni German philologists Cuneiform Old Persian language