Johan David Åkerblad (6 May 1763, Stockholm – 7 February 1819,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

diplomat and orientalist.

Career

In 1778 he began his studies of classical and oriental languages at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

. In 1782 he defended his graduate thesis before Professor Eric Michael Fant. From 1783, he improved his language skills at the Swedish royal chancery in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

. From 1784 onwards he was a diplomat in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa. From 1800 he conducted research at 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 at other places of learning in Paris, The Hague, and Rome. He focused on the study of ancient Egyptian. He also gathered material for a dictionary of Coptic language.

Rosetta stone research

While in Paris, he was a student of

Silvestre de Sacy Antoine Isaac, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (; 21 September 175821 February 1838), was a French nobleman, linguist and orientalist. His son, Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy, became a journalist. Life and works Early life Silvestre de Sacy was born in Pa ...

. Sacy's investigation of the

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancien ...

resulted in his being able to read five names, such as "'' Alexandros''". This was reported by him in 1802. Åkerblad took on his work, and his major contribution in this area was published the same year in Paris. Åkerblad managed to identify all

proper names A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

in the

demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm, the demotic script for writing Vietnamese See also * * Demos (disa ...

text in just two months. He could also read words like "Greek", "temple" and "Egyptian" and found out the correct sound value from 14 of the 29 signs, but he wrongly believed the demotic hieroglyphs to be entirely

alphabetic An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

. One of his strategies of comparing the demotic to Coptic later became a key in Champollion's eventual decipherment of the

hieroglyphic Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

script and the

Ancient Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts which were made accessible to the modern world following the deciphe ...

. In 1810, Åkerblad sent to Sacy for publication his work entitled ''MÉMOIRE: Sur les noms coptes de quelques villes et villages d'Égypte.'' Yet, unfortunately, its publication was delayed, and it was not published until 1834. Some scholars saw such delay as motivated by political or personal considerations. His last days were spent in Rome where he was supported by Elizabeth Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire, and others who admired his talents.

Published works

*Johan David Åkerblad, ''Lettre sur l'inscription Égyptienne de Rosette: adressée au citoyen Silvestre de Sacy, Professeur de langue arabe à l'École spéciale des langues orientales vivantes, etc.; Réponse du citoyen Silvestre de Sacy''. Paris: L'imprimerie de la République, 1802 *''Om det sittande Marmorlejonet i Venedig'' (1800–3)The Varangians of Byzantium By Benedikt S. Benedikz
retrieved 18/09/2011 * 1802: Inscriptionis phoenicieæ Oxoniensis nova interpretatio * 1804: Lettre sur une inscription phénicienne, trouvée à Athenes * 1804: Notice sur deux inscriptions en caractères runiques, trouvées à Venise et sur les Varanges, avec les remarques de M. d'Ansse de Villoison * 1811: Sopra due laminette di bronzo trovate ne' contorni di Atene. Dissertazione letta nell'accademia libera d'archeologia al campidoglio li 30. Giugno 1811 * 1813: Inscrizione greca sopra una lamina di piombo, trovata in un sepolcro nelle vicinanze d'Atene * 1817: Lettre à M:r le cheval. Italinsky sur une inscription phénicienne *Johan David Åkerblad
Sur les noms coptes de quelques villes et villages d'Égypte.''
Journal asiatique, 1834, vol. XIII p337

Career

Rosetta stone research

Published works

References

Further reading