AKERBLAD, Jan David (1760-1819), a learned Swede, distinguished for his researches in Runic, Coptic, Phoenician, and ancient Egyptian literature. He entered the diplomatic service as secretary to the Swedish embassy at Constantinople, and utilised the leisure which the situation afforded by visiting Jerusalem (1792) and the Troad (1797). After an interval spent at Göttingen, he was appointed ambassador to Paris. His last years were passed at Rome, where he enjoyed a pension from the Duchess of Devonshire. Akerblad was a diligent student of hieroglyphics; and though he failed to decipher the Rosetta stone, he arrived at certain conjectural conclusions with regard to the true method of interpretation, which were afterwards confirmed by Dr Young. His works include letters on the Coptish cursive writing and on the Rosetta inscription, both addressed to M. de Sacy; and a number of pamphlets on the interpretation of various Runic and Phoenician inscriptions.

AKERMAN (perhaps the ancient Tyras or Julia Alba), a town of Russia in Europe, in the province of Bessarabia, on a tongue of land projecting into the estuary of the Dniester. Its harbour is too shallow to admit vessels of large size; but the trade of the town is, notwithstanding, very considerable. Large quantities of salt are obtained from the saline lakes in the neighbourhood; and com, wine, wool, and leather are among the other exports. The town, which is ill-built, contains several mosques and Greek and Armenian churches; it is guarded by ramparts, and is commanded by a citadel placed on an eminence. Akerman derives some historical celebrity from the treaty concluded there in 1826 between Russia and the Porte, securing considerable advantages to the former. It was the non-observance of this treaty by Turkey that led to the war of 1828. Population (1867), 29,609....