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Rosetta Stone
Rosetta is a
town in Egypt.
In Arabic, the town's name is Rashid.
What's So Special
About the Rosetta Stone?
The Rosetta Stone carries an inscription in different languages
which helped decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script.
It
is the only surviving fragment of a larger stone slab (stela)
recording a decree on March 27, 196 BC.
The Writing on the
Rosetta Stone
At the top section, the decree was written in Egyptian hieroglyphs,
the traditional script of Egyptian monuments, already 3000 years
old.
In the middle, the same decree was
written in demotic, the everyday script of literate Egyptians.
At the bottom, the decree once more
but in Greek, the language
used by the government.
the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum in London
Click picture to enlarge
The Discovery of the Rosetta Stone
In 1799, and just north of the town of Rosetta, one of
Napoleon's
officers accidentally and literally stumbled upon the stone.
What was Napoleon's
expedition doing in Egypt in the first place?
Here is more about
Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
French archaeologist and expert on all
things Egyptian Jean-François
Champollion knew what to do with the engravings and managed to
decipher the Rosetta Stone, and consequently Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The year? 1822.
See more under
Ancient
Egyptians.
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