What is the Rosetta Stone?
Quick answer
The Rosetta Stone is a slab of granodiorite carved in 196 BC with the same decree written in three scripts: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic and Ancient Greek. Because scholars could read the Greek, it became the key to deciphering hieroglyphs. Jean-François Champollion announced his breakthrough in 1822.
Key facts
- Date
- 196 BC
- Found
- 1799, near Rashid (Rosetta), Egypt
- Size
- About 112 cm tall, 760 kg
- Location today
- British Museum, London
What the stone says
The text is a decree issued by priests at Memphis honoring the young king Ptolemy V, praising his good deeds and declaring that copies be placed in temples. It’s not a poem or story but an official document, which is exactly why it was written in several scripts.
| Script | Used by |
|---|---|
| Hieroglyphs | Priests, for sacred and monumental texts |
| Demotic | Everyday Egyptian writing |
| Ancient Greek | The ruling Ptolemaic administration |
Discovery
French soldiers found the stone in 1799 while rebuilding a fort near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. After the British defeated the French, it was handed over under the Treaty of Alexandria (1801) and has been in the British Museum since 1802. Egypt has called for its return.
Cracking the code
| Scholar | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Thomas Young (British) | Showed that cartouches (oval rings) held royal names, and identified some sound signs |
| Jean-François Champollion (French) | Proved hieroglyphs combine sound signs and meaning signs, using his knowledge of Coptic |
Champollion reportedly ran to his brother’s office shouting “Je tiens l’affaire!” (“I’ve got it!”) and then fainted.
“A Rosetta Stone”
Today, the phrase means a key to understanding something difficult, and it gave its name to a well-known language-learning company and to the European Space Agency’s Rosetta comet mission.
Egyptian scribes wrote everyday texts on papyrus; see what papyrus is. For other scripts that were decoded, see Linear B and Maya writing.
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