The History of the Middle East

In 18 22, jean francois champolion used it to decipher the egyptian hieroglyphic text. While champolion was poring over the rosetta stone, the french vicar general of bagdad carried out the first excavation of a mesopotamian site. The glazed brickworks and tablets he shipped home excited the public imagination. In less than a decade they had resurrected from obscurity the mighty assyrian empire previously only known from the bible. You can visit them in the louvre, which opened its assyrian gallery in 18 forty seven.