Rosetta Stone
A decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt stands as a stele of granodiorite. The stone bears three versions of this text, each written in a different script. The top register uses Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, while the middle section employs Demotic script. The bottom portion contains Ancient Greek text. This specific combination allowed scholars to eventually unlock the meaning of the ancient language. The original stele was likely displayed within a temple at Sais before being moved. It later served as building material for Fort Julien near Rashid. The stone itself measures approximately 1.14 meters in height and 0.73 meters wide. Its thickness is about 28 centimeters, and it weighs roughly 762 kilograms. The front surface is polished with inscriptions lightly incised into it. The back remains roughly worked because it would not have been visible when erected. A pink vein runs across the top left corner, typical of granodiorite from Gebel Tingar. Comparisons with rock samples confirm its origin near Aswan on the west bank of the Nile.
French soldiers under Colonel d'Hautpoul were strengthening defenses at Fort Julien in mid-July 1799. Lieutenant Pierre-François Bouchard spotted a slab with inscriptions during demolition work. He and his commander recognized the importance immediately and informed General Jacques-François Menou. Michel Ange Lancret reported the find to the Institut d'Égypte in Cairo, noting three distinct inscriptions. Napoleon's scientific commission included 151 technical experts known as savants who accompanied the army. Jean-Joseph Marcel became the first to recognize the middle text as Demotic script rather than Syriac. Nicolas-Jacques Conté developed a method to use the stone itself as a printing block for reproductions. Antoine Galland adopted a slightly different technique for creating prints. These copies traveled to Paris via General Charles Dugua, allowing European scholars to examine them. Napoleon returned to Europe in August 1799, leaving his troops behind. British forces landed at Abu Qir Bay in March 1801, leading to the Battle of Alexandria. The French surrendered on the 30th of August, and the stone was taken by British forces. Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner transported it to England aboard HMS Égyptienne. It arrived in Portsmouth in February 1802 before being presented to King George III.
Jean-François Champollion announced the transliteration of Egyptian scripts in Paris on the 27th of September 1822. Thomas Young had previously identified phonetic characters used to write Greek names like Ptolemy within hieroglyphs. Young noted 80 similarities between the hieroglyphic and demotic texts on the stone. He deduced that the demotic script was partly phonetic and contained ideographic characters derived from hieroglyphs. His findings appeared prominently in an article titled Egypt published in 1819. Champollion constructed an alphabet of phonetic hieroglyphic characters based on foreign names found in cartouches. He completed this work on the 14th of September 1822 and announced it publicly later that day. A famous letter written to Bon-Joseph Dacier detailed his discovery process. Later scholars confirmed similar phonetic characters occurred in both Greek and Egyptian names. The decipherment required comparing all three versions of the text against one another. Antoine-Jean Letronne prepared a new literal translation of the Greek text for Champollion's use. François Salvolini, Champollion's former student, died in 1838, leaving behind crucial drafts. Heinrich Brugsch and Max Uhlemann produced revised Latin translations during the early 1850s. The first English translation followed in 1858 by members of the Philomathean Society at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited almost continuously in the British Museum since June 1802. It received inventory number EA 24 during the middle of the 19th century. The stone was transferred to the sculpture gallery in 1834 after Montagu House was demolished. Originally displayed at a slight angle from the horizontal within a metal cradle, it lacked protective covering until 1847. Conservation measures were undertaken in 1999 while keeping the stone visible to the public. Since 2004, the conserved stone rests in a specially built case in the center of the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery. A replica is available in the King's Library without a case for visitors to touch freely. During World War I, the museum moved the stone to safety below ground level in a Postal Tube Railway station near Holborn. This relocation occurred in 1917 due to concerns about heavy bombing in London. The stone spent two years underground before returning to display. It left the British Museum only once for one month in October 1972. That brief trip allowed it to be displayed alongside Champollion's Lettre at the Louvre in Paris on the 150th anniversary of the letter's publication.
Zahi Hawass made calls for the Rosetta Stone to be returned to Egypt in July 2003. He served as Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities at that time. Hawass described the stele as the icon of Egyptian identity in media statements. He repeated his proposal two years later in Paris, listing other key items belonging to Egypt's cultural heritage. These included the bust of Nefertiti and the Dendera Temple Zodiac among others. In August 2022, Hawass reiterated his previous demands for permanent return. The British Museum presented Egypt with a full-sized fiberglass replica in 2005. This copy was initially displayed in the renovated Rashid National Museum within an Ottoman house. Hawass suggested a three-month loan of the actual stone in November 2005 while reiterating the goal of eventual return. He proposed dropping his claim for permanent return if the museum lent the stone for three months during the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2013. John Ray observed that the day may come when the stone has spent longer in the British Museum than it ever did in Rosetta. Over 30 leading museums issued a joint statement in 2002 opposing repatriation of objects like this one.
The term Rosetta Stone now refers to the essential clue to a new field of knowledge across various disciplines. Nobel laureate Theodor W. Hänsch wrote in 1979 that the spectrum of hydrogen atoms proved to be the Rosetta Stone of modern physics. Fully understanding the key set of genes to the human leucocyte antigen has been described as the Rosetta Stone of immunology. The flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana carries the title Rosetta Stone of flowering time. A gamma-ray burst found with a supernova serves as a Rosetta Stone for understanding the origin of such bursts. The technique of Doppler echocardiography earned the same designation for clinicians studying heart function. The European Space Agency launched its Rosetta spacecraft to study comet 67P/Churyumov, Gerasimenko. This mission aimed to determine the comet's composition and advance understanding of Solar System origins. Various ancient bilingual or trilingual documents have sometimes been called Rosetta stones themselves. Bilingual Greek-Brahmi coins allowed Christian Lassen initial progress toward deciphering Brahmi script. The Behistun Inscription links translations of Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian languages. The first figurative use of the phrase appeared in the 1902 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica regarding chemical analysis.
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Common questions
What is the Rosetta Stone and when was it created?
The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite that bears three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt. The stone measures approximately 1.14 meters in height, 0.73 meters wide, and weighs roughly 762 kilograms.
Who discovered the Rosetta Stone and where did they find it?
Lieutenant Pierre-François Bouchard spotted the slab with inscriptions during demolition work at Fort Julien near Rashid in mid-July 1799. French soldiers under Colonel d'Hautpoul were strengthening defenses there when he made the discovery alongside his commander General Jacques-François Menou.
When did Jean-François Champollion announce the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone?
Jean-François Champollion announced the transliteration of Egyptian scripts in Paris on the 27th of September 1822. He completed this work on the 14th of September 1822 after constructing an alphabet of phonetic hieroglyphic characters based on foreign names found in cartouches.
How long has the Rosetta Stone been exhibited in the British Museum?
The Rosetta Stone has been exhibited almost continuously in the British Museum since June 1802. It left the museum only once for one month in October 1972 to be displayed alongside Champollion's Lettre at the Louvre in Paris.
Why is Zahi Hawass calling for the return of the Rosetta Stone to Egypt?
Zahi Hawass described the stele as the icon of Egyptian identity and served as Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities when he made calls for its return in July 2003. He reiterated his demands for permanent return in August 2022 while listing other key items belonging to Egypt's cultural heritage.