Jean François Champollion (1790-1832), decryptor of Egyptian hieroglyphics or "sacred carvings" and translator of the Rosetta stone, which was uncovered by a French soldier under Napoléan's command in 1799 in the Nile Delta town of Rashid, Egypt. On the stone were inscribed the archaïc language of Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Demotic. His main work was the Summary of the Hieroglyphic System of Ancient Egyptians.

     Unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform (from the Latin cuneus for “wedge”) was not a single system of writing representing just one language – it was used for numerous languages for over three thousand years and varied from one language to the next. 
    Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810-95), British officer in service with the Persian army and consul of Baghdad, had some understanding of Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and Avestan (Old Persian). In 1827, he traveled to India as cadet with the East India Company and became the first person to decipher successfully cuneiform tablets found there.

His major work was entitled A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Assyria.