Have you heard of Rosetta Stone? No, we are not talking about a Language teaching software. But
THE Rosetta Stone, that the software was named after. It is an actual historical artifact that
revolutionized understanding of ancient languages like never before. The Rosetta Stone serves as
an important resource and tool dating to the 2nd century BCE. The story behind the Rosetta Stone,
its discovery, and its place in history includes some unlikely figures, a bit of controversy, and
some impressive code cracking. At the time, no one grasped the importance of the large stone slab.
During the 19th century, linguists used the Rosetta Stone to do what had previously been
impossible - read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1798, Napoleon launched a campaign into Egypt.
Egypt, nominally under the authority of the Ottoman Empire, was led by Islamic
Mamluks - former slave soldiers who established an independent dynasty in Egypt and Syria during
the 13th century. Upon arrival, somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 French fighters
captured Alexandria before pushing on to Cairo. As French forces traversed the Egyptian deserts,
the British navy attacked the French fleet in the Mediterranean and Mamluk troops attempted to fight
back against the French invasion. Alongside the French military, almost 200 technical experts,
or savants, from France traveled to Egypt. Intrigued by Egyptian culture,
they benefited from the efforts of French soldiers when they happened upon an engraved stone slab
near the port city of Rosetta (el-Rashid) in July 1799. More or less a happy accident,
the find was credited to French General Baron Boussard, but it could have been found by any
of the men demolishing the temple wall it had been built into. To his credit,
Bourssard recognized its importance and sent the stone to Cairo. It was then examined by savants
and Napoleon himself, who, "in order to satisfy the curiosity of the literati in every country,
gave orders to have the inscription engraved immediately." Basically, he wanted copies made for
the international smarty-pants community - in part for them, but also to broadcast his really cool
trophy. Finding the Rosetta Stone was one thing, but determining its initial content was another.
As a stele - or stone erected as a monument - the Rosetta Stone was made out of granodiorite.
Nearly four feet tall, just over 2.5 feet wide, and 11 inches thick, the stone weighed 1,680 lbs.
Although the stone was damaged, there were three distinct passages written in three different
scripts identified on its surface. Because parts of the top and the bottom are both missing,
none of the three passages were complete. From the outset, it was believed correctly that they
all contained the same message. French savants quickly identified that one of the scripts on the
stone was ancient Greek. Greek is an Indo-European language still in use today, but has undergone
continued changes over more than 34 centuries. It's alphabetic and even its most ancient dialects
are readable and translatable. Jean-Joseph Marcel and Remi Raige, in their initial assessment,
determined that one of the two remaining scripts on the Rosetta Stone was Demotic - a cursive
writing style used to produce business and legal documents in ancient Egypt. Demotic was made
up of symbols that represented ideas and sounds and was accessible to commoners. Unfortunately,
they couldn't read Demotic. Marcel and Raige made a print of the text and sent it to Europe where
scholars were making gains in this area, however. They benefited from the Rosetta Stone,
comparing the Greek section to the Demotic one, slowly deciphering the unknown language.
The third language, hieroglyphic, remained a mystery. Hieroglyphic was the sacred language
in ancient Egypt. Similarly made up of symbols - called hieroglyphs - hieroglyphics had fallen
by the wayside during the 4th century CE. When it was replaced with simpler, more convenient writing
styles, knowledge of how to read or write the picture-based language perished. RIP, hieroglyphs.
As linguists put their all into reading the Rosetta Stone, Napoleon continued his campaigns
in Egypt and Syria. It didn't go well. Due to repeated defeats by the British, Napoleon was
forced to sign the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801. According to the Treaty, the French had to give
up their most valuable archaeological treasures - including the Rosetta Stone - to the British.
The Rosetta Stone was sent to England via ship, where it arrived at Portsmouth in February 1802.
It was then transported to London and held at the British Museum. Sacre bleu!
Comparing the Greek and scripts yielded some exciting results. Names like "Ptolemy" were
deciphered and scholars identified several letters of the Demotic alphabet. Because
many of the Demotic characters were ideograms - symbols that represented ideas - a full reading
remained impossible. Englishman Thomas Young built upon the advances of his predecessors,
identifying corresponding Demotic and hieroglyphic characters in 1814. Young added 86 symbols to the
growing Demotic script. He found Greek and Demotic counterparts, then looked at the third script
for their translation. In 1816, Young identified "Ptolemy" in all three languages. Around the same
time, Jean Francois Champollion, a French scholar, made comparable advances in understanding the
third script. Young and Champollion wrote to one another and shared their findings, but Champollion
was able to construct an entire phonetic alphabet of hieroglyphs. He took what he found, assessed
other ancient Egyptian texts, and more or less deciphered ancient Egyptian grammar and language.
Now that is a work of a cunning linguist! Champollion’s published first work on hieroglyphs
along with other scholars who preceded him helped cracking the code of, "hieroglyphic, figurative,
ideographic and alphabetic" writing in Egypt. Identifying what the text on the Rosetta Stone
said in one...two...and then three languages meant it was now possible to venture into the unknown.
Previously unreadable ancient Egyptian texts, inscriptions, and artefacts
opened a whole new world of Egyptian culture rife with possibility. The three scripts on the Rosetta
Stone help place it in history. Greek, Demotic, and Hieroglyphic were all in use after Egypt fell
under the authority of the Ptolemaic dynasty that lasted from roughly 305 to 30 BCE.
The text of the Rosetta Stone praises one of the rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty - Ptolemy V - and
was erected in 196 BCE. Known as Ptolemy V Epiphanes (the god manifests himself),
Ptolemy ruled via a regent from 210 to 205 BCE and then on his own 180 BCE. Ptolemy V
took the throne as a young child after the death of his parents, married a Syrian princess,
and was assassinated in anticipation of starting a war with the Seleucid Empire to the east.
According to the Rosetta Stone, Ptolemy quashed revolts, brought prosperity to Egypt, administered
justice, and remitted taxes - all the things a good leader should do. The location of the Rosetta
Stone has not changed since 1802 - except for a brief period when it was moved to an underground
postal railway station for its protection during World War One. On full display and open for public
viewing, the Rosetta Stone's presence in London is not without controversy. For some, the Rosetta
Stone is a symbol "through which you can trace Western colonial interest in Egypt." Calls for
its return to Egypt continue to arise for decades, but negotiations for even a temporary visit have
failed. As plans were unveiled for the Grand Egyptian Museum during the early 2000s, located
near the Pyramids at Giza, there was renewed hope that the Rosetta Stone might return to its native
country. Tell us what you think - how cool is the Rosetta Stone? Where would we be without it?
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