Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is an artifact from the 2nd century BCE that was found in Egypt in 1799. It is a fragment of a carved stone decree. The message on the tablet is written in two Egyptian language scripts—Demotic and Hieroglyphic—as well as in Greek.

By studying the known Greek, 19th century scholars were eventually able to translate the mysterious hieroglyphs that had baffled their predecessors for centuries. With the translation of hieroglyphic script, the secrets of an ancient and powerful society could be read from firsthand historical accounts for the very first time.

The word stone is somewhat misleading; it evokes thoughts of a geological and not a cultural artifact. The object we see today is only a fragment of the original tablet that dates back to 196 BCE. Inscribed on the black granite stone is a decree of the Greek government, which ruled over Egypt at this time. Hieroglyphics were rare after the 4th century BCE but were still used for some religious and governmental purposes.

This is why the decree on the stone is written in three different languages: hieroglyphs, because it was a government document; Demotic, which was the common language of the Egyptian people at the time; and Greek, the language of the foreign government. It is believed that such stones would have been placed outside of temples for public viewing.

Cleopatra

After the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE, Egypt became part of the Roman Empire. As the Romans converted to Christianity, so did the Egyptians. As time went by, religious importance shifted away from the temples of the old cults, and they began to close. In 392 CE, the Byzantine emperor Theodosius issued an edict to close them all. The Rosetta Stone was most likely damaged during Justinian’s reign in approximately 535 CE.

During this time temples were being destroyed and their stones recycled for construction projects throughout Egypt. The piece of the stone we see today was eventually moved to Rashid and was used to build a fortress around 1480 CE. Time reduced this stone from a highly regarded object to just another building block.

The stone was discovered in Rashid (Rosetta), in July of 1799. There is some dispute among scholars as to who actually uncovered it. Pierre Francois Xavier Bouchard, a French soldier, is most often credited with the find. The French soldiers immediately realized the importance of the piece and brought it to the Egyptian Institute in Cairo.

This establishment had been founded to house the ancient artifacts gathered by the French scholars who accompanied Napoleon on his expedition to conquer northern Egypt. These scholars were recording the relics of Pharaonic Egypt and sending this information back to Europe.

were made

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone was announced to the world on Sept. 15th, 1799. Copies were made and sent to Paris in 1800. The stone was then moved to Alexandria for further study. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was surrendered to the British as part of the Treaty of Alexandria signed that same year.

The French were allowed to make a cast of it before they were forced to leave Egypt. When the stone first arrived in England, it was housed at the Society of Antiquaries in London. Casts were sent throughout the UK for study. In 1802, it was officially donated to the British Museum by King George III. It has been on display there for more than 2 centuries.

It would be nearly 20 years before someone would solve the mystery of the hieroglyphs written on this artifact. At the time of its discovery, the written language of the Egyptian people was Coptic, which uses Greek letters, along with a few additions, to spell out the Egyptian language.

By this time, Demotic was a long-forgotten dialect, and so this part of the text on the stone was also a mystery to modern scholars. It was not known if it was an alphabetic language like Coptic or a more symbolic language like hieroglyphics.

Two scholars are associated with the translation of hieroglyphs. Thomas Young was an English scientist and researcher. He mastered many subjects during his long and successful career. By 1814 he had completely translated the Demotic text of the Rosetta Stone.

basic understanding

In the next few years he had achieved a basic understanding of hieroglyphics, although it was later determined that many of his findings were incorrect. Some of Young’s conclusions appeared in the famous article “Egypt” he wrote for the 1818 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. However, he did not publish his complete findings until 1823.

Jean-Francois Champollion is the name usually associated with the Rosetta Stone. Today, he is also credited with being the father of egyptology. Champollion was born on December 23, 1790, at Figeac in France. At the age of 10 he began formal study at the lyceum in Grenoble. By 1806, he spoke a dozen different oriental languages, including Coptic.

At just 16 he published a paper that theorized that the Coptic language of the modern Egyptians was the same verbal language as that of the ancient Egyptians. This theory would be the basis of his later work trans lating the Rosetta Stone. It is thought that Champollion’s immense interest in this topic came from the Napoleonic campaigns in Egypt during his childhood. He dedicated his career to studying the Pharaonic times of Egypt linguistically and archaeologically.

studying Egyptian

He traveled around Europe studying Egyptian collections and taking extensive notes of all of his observations. He was appointed curator of the Louvre’s Egyptian exhibit when it opened in 1827. In 1828, Champollion traveled to Egypt for the first and only time. It was an extensive 2-year journey mapping and studying ancient artifacts throughout the Nile region.

By 1818, Champollion had succeeded in figuring out that some signs were strictly symbolic and that many others had phonetic value. Therefore, the ancient Egyptian script was at least partially alphabetic. This breakthrough allowed Champollion and other scholars to crack the code of the ancient Egyptians.

A language thought to be lost in time was now legible. The ability to read hieroglyphic carvings has allowed scholars to study and understand the documents of an ancient civilization that are nearly 5,000 years old.