Biblical Archaeology & Beyond Presents The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone an ancient Egyptian artifact that has helped us understand hieroglyphic writing.
The stone a Ptolemaic era stele with a carved text has three translations of a single passage:one in classical Greek and two ( Hieroglyphic and Demotic ) in Egyptian language scripts.

The stone was created around 196 B.C, and was discovered by the French at Rashid in 1799.
Rashid is a harbour on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt and is now referred to as Rosetta.

It contributed a great deal to the decipherment of the principles of hieroglyphic writing in 1822 by the British scientist Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-Francios Champollion.Comparing the languages on the stone assisted in understanding the previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing.

The text on the Rosetta Stone is from Ptolemy V, and is a decree talking about the repealing of various taxes and also instructions to erect statues in certain temples.

The stone weigh's about 1,676 lb. and is 11 in, thick. It was first thought to be basalt or granite but is now being described as grandorite and has a dark blue- pinkish- gray color.The stone has been at the British Museum on public display since 1802.

In 1814, Briton Thomas Young finished translating the enchorial (demotic) text, and began work on the hieroglyphic script. From 1822 to 1824 the French scholar, Jean-Francios Champollion greatly expanded on this work and is credited as the principal translator of the Rosetta Stone.

Champollion could read both Greek and Coptic, and figured out what the seven Demotic signs in Coptic were. By looking at how these signs were used in Coptic, he worked out what they meant.

Then he traced the Demotic signs back to hieroglyphic signs. By working out what some hieroglyphs stood for, he transliterated the text from the Demotic (or older Coptic) and Greek to the hieroglyphs by first translating Greek names which were originally in Greek, then working towards ancient names that had never been written in any other language.

Champollion then created an alphabet to decipher the remaining text.

This information and all photo's provided by: Wikipedia- Roestta Stone

In October 1972 the stone was exibited for one month at the Louvre Museum for the 150th anniversary of the decipherment of hieroglyphic writings.

Eygpt demanded the return of the Rosetta Stone in July of 2003. The secetary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cario, Dr Zahi Hawass told the press "If the British want to be remembered, if they want to restore their reputation, they should volunteer to return the Rosetta Stone because it is the icon of our Egyptian identity."

Hawass was negotiating for a three month loan, in 2005 with the goal of a permanent return. However the British Museum sent him a replica of the stone in November 2005.

The Rosetta Stone has spent most of it's time at the British Museum since 1802.

Although in 1917 toward the end of World War 1 The Museum worried about heavy bombing in London moved the Rosetta Stone to safety.

The stone spent the next two years on the Postal Tube Raillway in a station at Holborn about 50 feet underground