WHAT IS THE ROSETTA STONE?
G'day folks,
Ever asked this question? Do you know the answer? This might help for those of you still wondering ...
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 (1773-1829), 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 inscription. Ultimately, it was French linguist
Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) 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 off-site,
underground spot.
Clancy's comment: Amazing, eh?
I'm ...
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