Starting from this position, he compared the two touches. Conjecturing that the triangle in the cartouche of Cleopatra represented the letter K, he found that the second figure was that of a lion which corresponded to the fourth figure in the cartouche of Ptolemy. He thence concluded that it was a phonetic sign for L, which also is the first letter of the name of lion in Coptic, 286 By similar method with the other signs he proceeded as far as the sixth hieroglyph, the Eagle. This does not occur in the other cartouche, but as it occurs again in Cleopatra in the ninth place, the illation was plain that it represented A. Some difficulty was experienced by Champollion with the seventh hieroglyph of the cartouche of Cleopatra. To justify his theory, it ought to correspond to the T of the cartouche of Ptolemy. But while the hieroglyph of Cleopatra was a hand, the corresponding one in the cartouche of Ptolemy was a semicircle. Concerning this he came to the conclusion, which has since been confirmed by experience, that the letter T was represented by both, the semicircle and the hand, there being perhaps some slight modification in its sound in different positions.

Champollion applied his theory successfully to the cartouche of Alexander, and then to other monuments, till he was able to publish in 1824 his Précis du Système Hieroglyphique. Before his death he had found the keys of 260 hieroglyphics. Others have made use of his discovery to compare the hieroglyphics and the hieratic and demotic characters, and to open up the literary resources of the valley of Nile.

Distinguished scholars have worked upon the theory of Champollion. Lenormant, Nestor l' Hote, Salvolini, Rosellini, Ungarelli, Leemans, Osburn, Birch, Hincks, Lepsius, de Rougé, de Saulcy, Mariette, Chabos, Deveria, de Horrack, Lefébure, Pierret, Grebaut, Brugsch, Dümichen, Louth, Eiselhor, Ebers, Stern, Pleyte, Lieblein, Goodwin, and LepageRenouf have perfected Champollion's system so that the language of the hieroglyphs is as open as the works of Cicero and Livy.

A discovery of considerable importance was accomplished in 1869 by M. Clermont-Ganneau, the dragoman of the French Consulate at Jerusalem. It is at present in the Louvre at Paris. It is called the Moabitic stone or the Stela of Mesa. It was originally a Monolithic block of black basalt, dotted with bright spots. M. de Vogue declares that the Stela of Mesa has no equal among the antiquities of the Hebrews. The annexed plate shows the restored stone.

On account of the hardness of the stone, the inscription on the face of this famous stone was not deeply engraven. It contains thirty-four lines of Moabitic writing, a form of speech having close affinity with the Hebrew of the Bible. The writing is in the Phenician characters used by the ancient Samaritans and Hebrews.

The Stela is one metre in heighth and about sixty centimetres in breadth. Its anterior face is without writing. The date of its writing is about nine hundred years before Christ; and since that time up to the time of its discovery it has lain at the base of a little hill near Dhiban, a little east of the Dead Sea.

When the Bedouins became aware that the stone possessed value, and was to be taken from their country, they broke it in pieces. Luckily a reproduction of the inscription had been made by M. Ganneau, before the stone was broken. He was able to gather about twenty of the pieces, and he has restored the stone with these and a plaster-cast. The clearer portions of the inscription are those parts which were engraved on the plaster-cast. The restoration is faithful, as it was made from the facsimile made of the stone before it was broken.

The Stela of Mesa is the most ancient known monument of alphabetical writing.

King Mesa, the author of the inscription, according to II. (IV.) Kings III. 4, "was a possessor of sheep, and rendered unto the King of Israel, a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool." After the death of Achab, Mesa rebelled against the King of Israel. He made war upon the Ammonites, Idumeans, and the Israelites, and took several cities of Israel. These victories are the theme of the famous inscription.

He says naught of his subsequent defeat and the destruction of his kingdom by the allied armies of Jehoram of Israel, and Jehoshaphat of Judah. Mesa being reduced to the last extremity, offered his eldest son as a holocaust to the god Chamos. At this spectacle, the Israelites were filled with horror, and returned with great booty to their own country. The Stela recounts only the victories of Mesa.

As the stone is mutilated, a part of its data will never be known, but in its mutilated state it is of great worth to biblical exegesis.