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WHAT IS THE
ROSETTA STONE?
In the 19th century, the Rosetta Stone helped scholars at long last
crack the code of hieroglyphics, the ancient Egyptian writing system.
French army engineers who were part of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egypt
campaign discovered the stone slab in 1799 while making repairs to a
fort near the town of Rashid (Rosetta). The artifact, which is made of
granodiorite, came into the possession of the British after they
defeated the French in Egypt in 1801.

The stone features a decree issued in 196 B.C. by a group of Egyptian

clergy and Egypt’s ruler, Ptolemy V, attesting to his generosity and
devoutness. It originally was displayed in a temple, possibly near the
ancient town of Sais, then centuries later moved to Rosetta and used
in the construction of Fort Julien, where it was eventually uncovered
by the French. The decree on the stone is written three times, in
hieroglyphics, which was used mainly by priests; in ancient Egyptian
demotic, used for everyday purposes; and in ancient Greek. The use
of hieroglyphics died out after the 4th century and the writing system
became an enigma to scholars.

British scientist Thomas Young, who began studying the Rosetta

Stone’s texts in 1814, made some initial progress in analyzing its
hieroglyphic inscription. Young surmised that the cartouches—
hieroglyphs enclosed in ovals—contained the phonetic spellings of
royal names, including Ptolemy, who was referenced in the Greek

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inscription. Ultimately, it was French linguist Jean-Francois

Champollion who deciphered the Rosetta Stone and cracked the
hieroglyphic code. Between 1822 and 1824, Champollion showed that
hieroglyphics were a combination of phonetic and ideographic signs
rather than just symbolic picture writing that didn’t also represent
sounds of language, as earlier scholars had suspected. For his
discoveries, Champollion is heralded as the founding father of
Egyptology.

Today, the Rosetta Stone, which measures about 44 inches tall and 30
inches wide, is housed in the British Museum in London, where it’s
been since 1802, except for a temporary re-location for safekeeping
during World War I to an o⤀ㄆ-site, underground spot.

Article Details:
What is the Rosetta Stone?
Author
Elizabeth Nix

Website Name
History.com

Year Published
2015

Title
What is the Rosetta Stone?

URL
http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-is-the-rosetta-stone

Access Date
August 26, 2016

Publisher
A+E Networks

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