The Rosetta Stone is a large black stone stele bearing a translation of Ancient Egyptian text, the first recovered in modern times. It was taken from building material in Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta when it was rediscovered on July 15, 1799 during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.
The discovered part of the stone is 114.4 centimeters (45 in) high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters (28.5 in) wide, and 27.9 centimeters (11 in) thick.
Weighing nearly one ton, the Rosetta Stone is inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt on March 27, 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of King Ptolemy V. The texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script and in Ancient Greek. This meant the stone could serve as a translation key, with the Greek portion, in particular, helping scholars crack the hieroglyphics, which had died out around the 4th century.
Study of the decree was already under way when the first full translation of the Greek text appeared in 1803. English physician and polymath Thomas Young "made a number of original and insightful innovations" in the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone in 1814. However, it was 20 years before the transliteration of the Egyptian scripts was announced by Jean-François Champollion in Paris in 1822; it took longer still before scholars were able to read Ancient Egyptian inscriptions and literature confidently.
After British troops defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, they seized the stone and transported it to London. It has been on public display at the British Museum since 1802, and is the museum's most-visited object.
During World War I, bombing scares prompted British Museum officials to move the Rosetta Stone, along with other select artifacts, to a nearby Postal Tube station situated 50 feet underground.
France finally got its chance to host the Rosetta Stone in 1972. The occasion was the 150th anniversary of the publication of Champollion’s Lettre a M. Dacier, which outlined his translation of the artifact's hieroglyphics. It was housed at the Louvre in Paris for a month.
Since its rediscovery, the stone has been the focus of nationalist rivalries, including a long-running dispute over the relative value of Thomas Young's and Jean-François Champollion's contributions to the decipherment, and demands for the stone's return to Egypt.
Source Mental Floss
The discovered part of the stone is 114.4 centimeters (45 in) high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters (28.5 in) wide, and 27.9 centimeters (11 in) thick.
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| The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum.By © Hans Hillewaert, |
Weighing nearly one ton, the Rosetta Stone is inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt on March 27, 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of King Ptolemy V. The texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script and in Ancient Greek. This meant the stone could serve as a translation key, with the Greek portion, in particular, helping scholars crack the hieroglyphics, which had died out around the 4th century.
Study of the decree was already under way when the first full translation of the Greek text appeared in 1803. English physician and polymath Thomas Young "made a number of original and insightful innovations" in the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone in 1814. However, it was 20 years before the transliteration of the Egyptian scripts was announced by Jean-François Champollion in Paris in 1822; it took longer still before scholars were able to read Ancient Egyptian inscriptions and literature confidently.
 |
| Champollion's table of hieroglyphic phonetic characters with their Demotic and Coptic equivalents (1822) |
After British troops defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, they seized the stone and transported it to London. It has been on public display at the British Museum since 1802, and is the museum's most-visited object.
During World War I, bombing scares prompted British Museum officials to move the Rosetta Stone, along with other select artifacts, to a nearby Postal Tube station situated 50 feet underground.
France finally got its chance to host the Rosetta Stone in 1972. The occasion was the 150th anniversary of the publication of Champollion’s Lettre a M. Dacier, which outlined his translation of the artifact's hieroglyphics. It was housed at the Louvre in Paris for a month.
Since its rediscovery, the stone has been the focus of nationalist rivalries, including a long-running dispute over the relative value of Thomas Young's and Jean-François Champollion's contributions to the decipherment, and demands for the stone's return to Egypt.
Source Mental Floss
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