Grotefend

Grotefend, Georg Friedrich (1775-1853), a German scholar, noted for his researches into cuneiform inscriptions, was born at Munden in Hanover, and educated there and at the university of Gottingen. His treatise on Universal Writing brought him into notice in 1799. He was well-read in Latin and Italian philology, and published a revised Latin Grammar, deciphered some Umbrian fragments, a treatise on Bactrian coins, and a work upon ancient Italy, It was in 1800 that he laid the foundations of modern progress in deciphering the cuneiform inscriptions by discovering that they were Persian, that there were three types of character, one of which was the key to another, and that they were written from left to right.