Jean-Jacques Barthélemy was a French scholar who became the first person to decipher an extinct language. He deciphered the Palmyrene alphabet in 1754 and the Phoenician alphabet in 1758. Wikipedia
Born: January 20, 1716, Cassis, France
Died: April 30, 1795 (age 79 years), Paris, France
Books: Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece, Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece: During the Middle of the Fourth Century Before the Christian Aera. Tr. from the French. In Seven Volumes and an Eighth in Quarto, Containing Maps, Plan [etc.], Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece: During the Middle of the Fourth Century Before the Christian Aera. Tr. From the French. in Seven Volumes and an Eighth in Quarto, Containing Maps, Plan [Etc.], Volume 6, and more