Culture | Johnson

How the Rosetta Stone was deciphered

“The Writing of the Gods” is an entertaining account of a great intellectual achievement

YOU MIGHT think the most daunting decoding challenges occur when an enemy makes a message difficult to read by design. To break ciphers such as Germany’s Enigma code in the second world war requires enormous ingenuity.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Write like an Egyptian”

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