All language subtitles for Butterfly.Effect.S03E05_English

- [Narrator] Our
history is no more

than a series of
incredible events.

Every one of us can
influence its course.

(dramatic music)

The most infinitesimal
of our decisions

can influence the
future of humanity.

To know the past is
to foresee the future.

2018, Silicon
Valley, California.

In the third basement
of this private museum,

the powerful deep
learning algorithms

of billionaire Adrian Bren

are about to achieve
their objective,

the decryption of the
Egyptian hieroglyphics.

At the beginning of
the 19th century,

while the Egyptian campaign
is turning into a fiasco,

the French scientists
overlook the Rosetta Stone.

During the two
centuries that follow,

Egypt's antique monuments
are at the mercy of looters

and private collections
are enriched

at the detriment of
national museums.

Today, having paid
the highest price

on the black market
for the precious stone,

the billionaire was
about to make history.

But none of that ever happened.

In 1799, a small grain
of providential sand

will allow us to pierce the
secret of the hieroglyphics.

July 21st, 1798,
Battle of the Pyramids.

General Bonaparte
just conquered Egypt.

July 15th, 1799,
Lieutenant Bouchard

accidentally discovers an
impressive Egyptian stone.

September 14, 1822,
Jean-Francois Champollion

manages to unlock the
mystery of hieroglyphics.

These three inexplicably
linked events

are key moments in the
decoding of hieroglyphics,

opening the path to Egyptology.

December 23rd, 1790,
Figeac, France.

Jean-Francois
Champollion is born

in a troubled political context.

The previous year in Paris,

armed revolutionists
stormed the Bastille.

Following that, France enters
a period of revolution.

The European monarchs
unite in an effort

to squash the dangerous ideas
of liberty and equality.

The Young Republic is
fighting on all fronts

in the context of total chaos.

Time passes, and while
little Champollion

is learning to read
at a very young age,

governments fall
one after the other.

The revolutionary terror
hovers over the countryside,

and the guillotine prunes
the political landscape.

England, leader of successive,

anti-revolutionary
coalitions,
is the national enemy.

But it is protected
by the channel.

The island is beyond the reach
of the revolutionary armies,

so they find a different path.

An invasion of Egypt could
compromise the route to India

and threaten British
trade interests.

At this time, Egypt was
part of the Ottoman Empire,

but the Sublime Porte,
riddled with corruption,

could only exercise
theoretical control.

The real power was in
the hands of the Mamluks.

Crossing the
Mediterranean controlled

by the Royal Navy is a
complicated endeavor.

To lead this dangerous mission,

they chose an officer
who has quickly risen

through the ranks,
General Bonaparte.

Young, dynamic, and aggressive,

Bonaparte is convinced by
the ideas of the revolution

and completely dedicated
to his country.

In record time, and
completely in secret,

Bonaparte manages to assemble
an army of 40,000 soldiers.

And that's not all.

Passionate about math
and a personal member

of the Institute of Sciences,

he asks the eminent
mathematician, Gaspard Monge,

to organize a commission
of scientists and artists

to accompany him to Egypt.

(people murmuring)

Beyond the military
considerations,

this would be a scientific
and cultural expedition.

In total, no less
than 167 savants join

the adventure without
knowing how long

it would take or exactly
where they would go.

May 19th, 1798,
mathematicians, chemists,

surveyors, doctors, architects,

painters and botanists set out

side-by-side with the
revolutionary troops

for the land of the pharaohs.

- [Narrator] Welcome to
the memory of humanity.

Every historical event,
regardless of how small,

is recorded and connected.

You only need to change one
to upset all the others.

Here, we are able
to control time,

analyze and compare
billions of events,

in order to rewrite
history in infinite ways.

Let's go back to the
dawn of the 19th century.

No one, not even in
Egypt, is able to decipher

the innumerable texts carved
in the tombs of the pharaohs,

or on obelisks that guard
the entrance to the temples.

Egyptian know
almost nothing about

their extensive
ancient heritage.

Egyptian civilization, from
the height of its millennia

of existence, has almost
disappeared from memory.

From Easter Island to the
Central American empires,

to the Celts, there are
significant parts of history

that remain
mysterious, even today.

Others have disappeared forever,

and their very existence
has been forgotten.

This makes one
pause for thought.

So matter how strong and
enduring a society might be,

a shift in the walls of fate can

still make it disappear forever.

On the scale of humankind,

civilizations are fragile
and awfully ephemeral.

None of them are
safe from oblivion.

(people yelling)

- [Narrator] November, 1798.

Jean-Francois Champollion
enters school.

This strong-willed,
young student

prefers Latin and Greek lessons

and turns his back
on math classes.

This is just one of the first
steps in the long love affair

between Champollion
and ancient languages.

A few months earlier, hundreds
of nautical miles from there,

General Bonaparte managed to
evade the English lookouts

and seized the
city of Alexandria.

July 21st, on the Banks
of the River Nile,

he defeated the Mamluk
tribes of Murad Bey.

During an epic battle not far

from the Great Pyramids of Giza,

the French soldiers
opened the road to Cairo

by firing their pistols.
(soldiers yelling)

Within a few months, General
Bonaparte conquers Egypt.

(dramatic orchestral music)

From then on, the
scientific commission

explores every inch
of the country.

The Egyptian Institute,
newly created in Cairo,

methodically inventories
everything found

with in the country and lays
the first stones of
Egyptology.

(canons firing)
(people yelling)

But the pressure from
the British fleet

is growing stronger
and stronger.

On August 1st, the
Admiral Nelson's squadron

destroyed the French fleet
in the harbor of Aboukir,

destroying all hopes
of returning to France.

Bonaparte is at an impasse.

He is forced to remain in Egypt.

Consequently, he
commands his men

to restore coastal
fortifications

in places like the
city El Rachid,

renamed Rosette in French.

July 15th, 1799.

While working,
Lieutenant Bouchard's men

dislodge a heavy, black stone.

The stone, which was intended
as building material,

immediately intrigues
the lieutenant.

Polytechnician and
reader of Ancient Greek,

the officer
immediately understands

the importance of the discovery.

Under a layer of dust,

he identifies some
Greek inscriptions.

But the stone has two others,

carved using different
systems of writing.

The lieutenant
alerts his superiors.

Quickly sent to
Cairo, the stone,

from then on called
the Rosetta Stone,

is the object of
everyone's attention.

In addition to Greek,

the two other writing
systems are identified.

The stone contains Demotic
and hieroglyphic symbols.

What is even more important,

the Greek text,
quickly deciphered,

indicates that the three texts

are in fact the translations
of the same decree

that came to unlock the secret

of the pharaoh's
sacred writings.

To facilitate its study,
they decided to make

a copy of the texts
in case the stone

falls into the hands
of the English.

- [Narrator] We have arrived
at the point of divergence.

A point of divergence
is a key moment,

a crossroads in our
history where our world

can swing from one
side to the other.

The Rosetta Stone
is a stone fragment

engraved with a
decree promulgated

by Pharaoh Ptolemy V in 196 BC.

The same text was
transcribed three times,

in hieroglyphics at the top,

in Demotic in the center,
and in Greek at the bottom.

In theory, understanding
the content

of one text allows
one to decipher

the content of the two others.

The stone was discovered
by an educated officer

who could actually read Greek.

This unique occasion
fell into the hands

of one of the rare
people who was capable

of understanding its importance.

As Louis Pasteur once said,

chance only favors
the prepared minds.

Someone without
in-depth knowledge of
the ancient languages

would probably have
used that block of stone

as backfill without anyone
ever knowing it existed.

Without the discovery
of the Rosetta Stone,

it is possible that Egyptology

would have never
become so popular.

Today, Egyptian
history would probably

still be largely
ignored or neglected.

Falling victim to looting
by treasure hunters,

the Egyptian heritage
would be scattered

amongst private collections
all around the globe.

- [Narrator] March, 1801.

Champollion, 10 years old,
joins his brother in
Grenoble.

He begins studying
Ancient Greek and Latin,

as well as Hebrew, Arabic,
Syriac, and Chaldean,

then moves on to
Persian and Coptic.

Archeology is his passion.

In 1804, he studies at
the Imperial High School.

Since the republic
has become an empire,

France has a new leader,
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Five years earlier,

evading the maritime
patrols of the Royal Navy,

the General of the
Republic fled from Egypt.

November 10th, 1799,
he positions himself

at the head of the
country through

an audacious military coup.

Thanks to savvy messaging,
his scientific triumphs

overshadow the failure of his
military campaign in Egypt.

But the repatriation of
the Scientific Commission,

loaded down by its
numerous documents,

notes, sketches, and
Egyptian artifacts,

is not achieved
without a compromise.

The English fleet
offers its safe return

in exchange for all of
the scientific works.

A terrible sacrifice.
(people yelling)

After tough negotiations,
the French are allowed

to keep their precious research,

but the British draw the line

at the most attractive
archeological finds,

especially the Rosetta Stone.

This is an immeasurable loss.

But inside the bags of
the French scholars,

the copies of the stone
have been happily preserved,

alongside Denon's
fabulous drawings

and other meticulous
descriptions of Egypt.

From 1802 to 1826,
these precious items

are patiently reassembled
in a monumental work,

The Description of Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone
immediately attracts

the attention of the
scientific community,

especially that of the
Englishman, Thomas Young.

The scientist
immediately gets to work.

His goal, make the stone speak

and unlock the secrets
of the hieroglyphics.

In 1808, one of the
copies of the stone

falls into the hands of the
17-year-old Champollion.

In 1814, he writes
to the Royal Society

asking for a better
transcription.

Thomas Young, then secretary

of the prestigious organization,

discovers that he has
a competitor in France.

The response from Young
to Champollion is clear.

The French transcriptions
have the same quality

as the English ones, so
there's
no need to send anything.

Soon, Champollion hears
about Young's research.

He has a rival in London.

- [Narrator] One writing
can be hiding another.

When the Rosetta
Stone was discovered,

the comprehension of
Egyptian hieroglyphics

had been lost since the
end of the Roman Empire,

even though it had
previously been

used for over three millennia.

Reserved for scribes, a
small, efficient cast,

the secrets of
hieroglyphic writing

was only known to a
handful of people.

In 391, the Roman
emperor, Theodosius I,

condemned the sacred
science to oblivion

when he ordered the closing
of the pagan temples.

Hieroglyphic writing,
designed to be carved,

is mainly figurative,
easily recognizable

by its symbols
representing objects.

Over time, it has simplified,
tending towards abstraction.

It becomes progressively linear,

then cursive so it
can be inscribed

more quickly on
parchment or papyrus.

The writing becomes even
more simplified with Demotic,

which is a popular writing
used in daily life,

a far cry from its
hieroglyphic ancestry.

Finally, Coptic appears,

which is based on
the Greek alphabet,

and still used today as
a liturgical language.

In Champollion's time,

the Egyptians use
another language, Arabic.

For researchers,
deciphering hieroglyphics

means traveling
through time across

various linguistic layers,
a true archeological feat.

Knowing the
intermediary languages

becomes a huge advantage.

- [Narrator] Young makes
the first notable advances.

He suggests that Demotic
is not simply alphabetic,

but a mixture between
hieroglyphics and an alphabet.

Thanks to the discoveries
of other researchers,

he also knows that the cartouche

with multiple hieroglyphics
actual contain

the names of the pharaohs.

His mathematical
method pushes him

to dismiss the signs
he deems unnecessary.

Young seems to be a step ahead.

(men yelling)
(guns firing)

June 18th, 1815,
Battle of Waterloo.

Napoleon's army,
after fighting alone

against all of
Europe, is vanquished

by a coalition led by England.

(dramatic orchestral music)

Napoleon advocates
a few days later.

Champollion, a supporter
of the emperor,

is placed under surveillance.

In March, 1816, he is
forced to leave the city

and has to stop his
research for one year.

Young continues
the race all alone.

The Englishman
publishes an article

in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

It claims to have discovered

the principles of
hieroglyphic writing,

but in reality, he can
successfully identify

the name of Pharaoh Ptolemy
thanks to cross checks,

but he is still unable to
read the hieroglyphics.

He has not found
the deciphering key.

Champollion is going
to go much further.

The Frenchman is persuaded
that within the same phrase,

a sign can be used as a
symbol to designate a word

or phonetically to
designate a sound.

According to him,
hieroglyphics are a mixture

of ideograms and phonograms.

Added to the block containing
the names of known pharaohs,

this major discovery will help

him isolate 12 phonetic signs.

It is the beginning.

On the morning of
September 14th, 1822,

he receives a reproduction
of a cartouche

from one of the
temples of Abu Simbel.

He begins studying
it immediately.

Thanks to his previous
work, he already knows

the two last signs, a double S.

Following his theory,
the first sign,

very widespread and
representative of the sun,

could be read as the symbol
of the God of the Sun,

or by his phonetic
equivalent in Coptic, Ra.

The sign in the middle
is also decipherable

thanks to his precious
knowledge of Coptic,

an advantage that Young lacked.

It reads bring to the world,

which is pronounced
mice or meese.

Combined, this reveals Ra-Mes-S,

or phonetically
speaking, Ramses,

which signified Ra is
the one who bore him.

For the first time
in 1,400 years,

on that day in 1822,
someone is able

to read the name of
the powerful pharaoh

using hieroglyphic symbols.

The legend says that
Champollion arrived

at his brother's house and
screamed, "I've got it,"

and then passed out
from exhaustion.

A few days later, he
details his discovery

in a letter to the (speaking
in foreign language).

(Young yells)

Thomas Young is offended that
he is only mentioned twice

in the publication
by Champollion,

a young, pretentious Frenchman

who is 17 years
younger than him.

In an anonymous letter, he
describes Champollion work

as an extension of his own.

- [Narrator] Making history.

Thomas Young, after
putting both his reputation

and a great deal of
energy into the fight,

is finally bested by a
young, French scholar.

Vexed, Young redoubles his
efforts to make his work
known,

arguing that
Champollion's discovery
is largely based on it.

One fact is obvious.

All of scientific
research is based

on the sum of knowledge
accumulated by others.

In 1809, after the long process

of classifying all the
vertebrate species,

the French naturalist
Lamarck proposed

a theory around the
evolution of species.

It is based in
part on principles

already developed by Aristotle.

50 years later, Charles
Darwin completes this theory

by adding the notion
of natural selection.

In 1859, he publishes On
the Origin of Species,

a major scientific work,
and a foundation text

explaining the
principles of evolution.

Today, everybody
knows the name Darwin.

But how much of his
fame is owed to Lamarck?

(soft, dramatic music)

- [Narrator] 1826.

Champollion is named
curator in charge

of the Egyptian collections
at the Louvre Museum.

It is a huge honor.

Enriching the collections
becomes Champollion's
priority.

In 1828, Champollion
finally realizes his dream.

He takes his first steps

on Egyptian sands for
a scientific mission.

He goes up the Nile until
the Second Cataract,

personally verifying the
validity of his work.

After being satisfied for years

with copies and reproductions,

he finally has multiple examples

of hieroglyphics
engraved or painted

on temples, statues,
sarcophagi, papyrus.

When he returns in
1830, he is elected

to the (speaking in
foreign language)

that obtains the first chair

of Egyptian archeology
in the world,

created specially for him
at the College de France.

He gives his inaugural
lecture in 1831,

but sickness takes him from
the world on March 4th, 1832.

He was only 41 years old.

He never saw the
Rosetta Stone in person,

but he accomplished his goals.

Entered in the
history of humankind

as the decipherer
of hieroglyphics,

this young scholar
who was passionate

about the Orient opened
up the path to Egyptology.

It's thanks to him
that today we know

so much about the 3,500 years
of Ancient Egyptian history.

And yet, there are still so
many mysteries to be
discovered.

But that is another story.

- [Narrator] Who is legitimate?

In 2004, the Supreme Council
of Antiquities in Cairo

sent a request to
the British Museum.

Found on Egyptian
soil and illegally
transported to England,

the Rosetta Stone
should be returned.

For the London Museum,
which had protected it

for over two centuries,
the stone has become

an integral part of
the British heritage.

The question of restitution
for numerous objects,

sometimes aligned with
colonial domination

or military operations
can be complex.

Before any other consideration,

these vestiges of the
past should be protected

against time, the elements,

and above all else, from humans.

The sacking of
churches and castles

during the French Revolution,

or the destruction of the
temples of Palmyra by ISIS

in 2015 remind us that the
heritage of humanity is
fragile.

Added to this is
the less visible

but equally destructive
black market for antiquities.

All countries are victims
and actors in this.

The Rosetta Stone has taught us

that each ruin can hide
an immeasurable secret.

Champollion worked for years

on the flawed reproduction
of this stone.

The original was
inaccessible because it was

situated in a country in
conflict with his own.

Today, a simple research
online allows us

to see high definition
photos of it.

The British Museum in
London, where it resides,

offers free access to
the public, for everyone.

It is now available
without restrictions.

(dramatic orchestral music)