Note 4 — Chapter I · THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS

Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt, vol. i. pp. 563 sqq.; translated into English in 1833. The revival of interest in Grotefend’s work was due to the fact that Champollion, after the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, found the name of Xerxes on an alabaster vase at Paris on which, according to Grotefend’s system, the same name was written in Persian cuneiform. This led the Abbé Saint-Martin, who was a recognized Orientalist, to adopt and follow up Grotefend’s discovery in a Memoir which he read before the French Academy in 1822, and Saint-Martin’s work attracted the attention of Rask and Burnouf.