Importance of the Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone contains a Greek translation of a decree written in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Scholars fascinated by ancient Egypt during the 18th century could not decipher the meaning of many hieroglyphics carved into temples and monuments. Hieroglyphs and the simpler demotic script disappeared when Greek, Christian and Arabic civilizations controlled Egypt.

Background

The British Museum estimates that the Rosetta Stone originated in 196 B.C. during the reign of King Ptolemy V. The Greeks had ruled as Pharaoh kings since the fourth century B.C., after Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt. While priests continued to use hieroglyphics and the demotic script, Greek influence already had begun to dominate in the form of the Greek alphabet. Hieroglyphic use and comprehension began to decline after the fourth century B.C. until it disappeared from records completely.

History

French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte's army discovered the Rosetta Stone during its invasion of Egypt in August 1799. The French troops were not on an archaeological dig at the time of discovery, but rather making repairs to their fort at Rosetta. One account follows that an officer named Boussard found the stone at the site of temple ruins scheduled for demolition. The French eventually surrendered the stone to Great Britain, where it remains in the British Museum as of 2009.

Significance

Ancient Egyptians believed the god Thoth invented hieroglyphics, and the secrets to this script, called the sacred carvings, remained among priests and scribes. These Egyptians also created two simpler, cruder forms of the hieroglyphic alphabet called hieratic and demotic. Egyptian writing lasted until the fifth century A.D., when the Roman Catholic Church forbade displays of paganism. Coptic, taken from the Greek alphabet, replaced the Egyptian script and began to merge with the ancient Egyptian language that people continued to speak. This too disappeared by the 11th century in favor of Arabic.

Features

The Rosetta Stone is a decree praising the recently crowned King Ptolemy V in three different texts---Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic characters and classical Greek. A council of priests, rather than the king, issued this decree of support for their Greek ruler. The British Museum believes that the Rosetta Stone demonstrated how Egyptians accepted Greek influence even if it signaled a decline in the Egyptian language.

An English physicist named Thomas Young theorized that a cartouche, or circle around a set of Egyptian hieroglyphs, identified the name of Ptolemy V. He proposed using the Greek Pharaoh's name as a starting point to translating the remaining text.

Effects

Jean-François Champollion translated the Rosetta Stone by first learning that hieroglyphs had a phonetic value still residing in the Coptic spoken language. While no longer a living language, Champollion had still managed to learn the language using the liturgy of the Christian Coptic Church. The ancient Egyptian scribes had formed hieroglyphs using pictorial representations of phonetic consonants.

Champollion's research led to an influx of knowledge from studying the walls of pyramids and other monuments. Scholars had a deeper and more accurate understanding of how ancient Egyptians lived, the mythology they believed and the Pharaohs who ruled them.

References

• The Rosetta Stone
• Deciphering Hieroglyphs
• "The Rosetta Stone"; E. A. Wallis Budge; 1989