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LECTURE II SECTION I 

Next great landmark 1n (cryptanalytic) history of decipherment is the solut1on 

of Egyptian Hieroglyphs 

Norbert W1ener•s characterizat1on (in Cybernetics, I bel1eve). 

Athanasius K1rcher delays solut1on for decades 

Problem notcrypt prJ.marily one of lingu1stics, grammar and recovery of 

dead language 

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The Rosetta Stone. 

Found in 1799 at Rashid or, as the Europeans cal.l. it, Rosetta, city N 

Egypt on the west bank of Rosetta branch of the Nile. 

Napoleon's Army - Colonel Boussard (or Bouchard) Became General and was 

1769-1821) al1ve in 1814. 

Brit1sh operat1ons in Egypt - SJ.r Ral.ph Abercomby 1 Spring 180'1 Important 

antiquities to be despatched to Britain - Art XVI called for Rosetta Stone and 

several other large items 

Rosetta Stone didn't leave Egypt until 18~1 

Inscription in two languages: (l) Egyptian and (2) Greek. 

@'pp roved for Release bv NSA on 09-19-2013 pursuant to E .0. 1352\3 
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Egyptian portion in two parts: 

1. Hieroglyphic characters-old picture writing used from earliest dynasties 

in making copies of the Book of the Dead and nearly all state and ceremonial docu~ 

ments intended f'or public display. 

2. Demotic characters - the conventional abbreviated and modified form of' 

the Hieratic character or cursive form of' hieroglyphic writing which was in use 

in the Ptolemaic Period. 

The Rosetta Stone (and the Obelisk from Philae) as CRIBS! 

First translation of Greek text by Rev Stephen Weston and read by him before 

Society of Antiquaries in London in April 1802 

First studies of the Demotic text by deSacy and Akerblad in l8ftl2. Latter 

succeeded in making out the general meaning of portions of the opening lines and 

in identifying the equivalents of the Da.I11es Alexander, Alexandria, PtoleillY', Isis, 

etc. Both deSacy and Akerblad began by attacking the Demotic equivalents of the 

cartouches, i.e., the ovals containiug royal names in the hieroglyphic text. 

In 1818 Dr. Thomas Young compiled for the 4th volume of Encycl Brit. 

(pub. in 1819) results of his studies and among them a list of several alphabetic 

Egyptian characters to which, in most cases, he had assigned correct values. He 

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was the first to grasp the idea of a pbOnetic principle in the Egyptian hieroglypb.s 

and he was the first to aPJ?]_y it to their deci;pherment 

But Young's Dame not associated in public mind with decipherment--that of 

Champollion 

Explain what C did Study of Coptic--only another name for Egyptian Coptic 

never lost. 

4.s 

Champollion (1790-1832) 

"I've got it!" Be cries to his brother after running a mile to latter's 

office And falls into a deep and lengthy lasitude for five days 

But Champoll.ion wasn't the only one who deserves credit or J.a.rgest share. 

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Cartoucbes from the Rosetta Stone and the Obelisk from Philae. 

The bottom one was suspected to represent CLEOPATRA. 

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Gartouches for ptolemy (A-the middle one of the preceding slide) 

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PtOlomey and CJ.eopatra 

4.5 

Ptolemy and Alexander 

(B-tbe lower most one of preceding slide) 

and Cleopatra 

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Budge says (p 7 of Br. Mus Brochure) 

"By the comparison of texts containing variant forms and by the skillful 

use of' his knowledge of Coptic, Champollion succeeded in formulating the system 

of decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyps this, substantially, that in use at the 

present day " 

Read list of items praising ptolemy, p. 7. 

It was a fortunate accident that early work had to deal with plain-language 

hieroglyphics. What J.f they'd first come across encrypted hieroglyphs?!'! 

4.6 

- Cryptographic hierogJ.yphics :fromDrioton 

ti 

More of the same. 

4. 

Michigan Cryptographic Papyrus 

POE 

- Edgar Allan Poe in the 184~•s rekindled interest in cryptography in America 

by his story "The Gold Bug" and a couple of essays and stories on ciphers and 

deciphering 

Story about challenge. One and only one message he couldn't soJ.ve, he wrote, 

and that one he proved to be a hoax' 

Story of Vincent ditty in a Cam.bridge Farce: 

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"I am the Master of the Col.l.ege What I don't know ain't knowl.edge! 

Come now to the period of the American Civil. War or the War between the 

States 

The Civil. War Period in the U.S 

Federal Army Ciphers • 

Confederate Army Cipher. 

Federal Army cryptanal.ytics. 

Conf'eredate Army cryptanal.ytics 

Comments on use of telegraph. 

2.... A couple of pages from one of the Federal Army Cipher Books (Have book 

of Federal Army Ciphers with me ) 

1ra 

Message to General Grant, 15 July 1863 

1ra l. and 18 2 

Another message, same date, but in two sections. 

L 

Cipher device used by the Coni'ederate Army, during the Civil War. Captured 

at Mobi1e 1865 

(Nothing but the old Vigenere cipher with repeating key Many messages 

intercepted and deciphered by Federals, who had a few skilled operators Ads 

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in Richmond :pa.per for persons skilled in deciphering shows the Confederates 

lacking.) 

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KEYWORDS: COMPLETE VICTORY 

COME RETRIBUTION 

MANCHESTER BLUFFS 

A cryptogi:oaphic message from President Lincoln to Major General Burnside. 

Comments on this episode: l Lack of confidence. 

2 Save time. 

Wilson, too, lacked confidence in official ciphers. 

Gettysburg incident. See p 11'/J of British Manua.1. 

After Civil War use of cryptography or cryptology went into decline during 

a long period of peace broken only briefly by the Spanish-American War. 

(Save for the cryptography in the Tilden-Hayes campaign of' 1878) 

214 

- TitJ.e page of "Tele a ic Code to ensure secrec in the transmission of 

Telega.ms," by Robert Slater, This was 5th edition, the l.st ed. dates from 

about J.85'6 ) 

Title page of same as put out f'or War Department by Gregory, 1885 Published 

in GPO in 1886 

215 

Slater 's Code Example I. 

Gregory's Code Example I 

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Spanish-American War. 

Code used in 1885 was fixed additive "777"'' 

1899 CSO undertakes preparation of suitable code. Economy featured. Work 

personally done by CSO. As temporary expedient used W .D. Tel Code of 1885 with 

new "preliminaryW D Tel Code" or 4Sf/Jf6 special words and phrases -- late 99 or 

early 19'6f/J 

19f/J2 - Cipher of the WD - published by TAG and only one. 

19!16 - WD Tel Code l9f/J6 - Greely 

1915 - WD Tel Code 1915 - published in Cleveland by private printers. 

216 

- Title page of War Department Telegraph Code 1915 

Printed in Cleveland by private printer' 

Cipher tables later put on 

WWI breaks out in Europe, August 19, 

Next period devoted to WI crypt. 

128 

Exa.mpl.e of micro-writing, in the siege or Paris 1870. 

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For World War I 

''With Hertz's discovery of so-called Bertzian waves and marconi's practical 

demonstration of signalling by 11wireless 11 , a new era in military communications 

was ushered in. And also a new era in cryptology The first wide usage of 

wireless or radio, as it soon came to be called, was in World War I But deveJ.opments in cryptography lagged a bit, as we shall see " 

In Europe, cryptology continued in development but mostly in the direction of 

larger and larger codes, plain or enciphered, and in the direction of certain 

types of ciphers, such as the PLAYFAIR No cipher devices or ma.chines worth 

mention except two--and these will. be talked about later 

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