egyptbc.com

Carved in 196 BC, the Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering the ancient Egyptian language.

It was discovered by soldiers in Napoleon’s army in 1799 whilst they were digging fortifications at el-Rashid (Rosetta), in Lower Egypt. On the 15th July of that year Captain Pierre Bouchard was supervising the engineering works of a new fort designed to repel attacks from the British and the Turks.

Whilst demolishing a wall Capt. Bouchard uncovered a polished black piece of basalt which had 3 distinct types of writing upon it. He instantly realised the significance of his find and arranged for the stone to be sent to Cairo - even though Napoleon was waging a military campain he had brought scholars too.

Two years later, in 1801, the French army surrendered to the British. Part of the terms of the surrender were covered under the Treaty of Capitulation which meant that the French expedition had to give up all treasures and antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone.

Scholars discovered that the three types of text on the Rosetta Stone were Greek, Hieroglyphs and Demotic. By firstly translating the Greek they were then able to go on and translate the hieroglyphs.

This simple piece of stone was therefore an amazing discovery. It allowed archaeologists, egyptologists and scholars to revisit tombs and temples in order to translate the paintings and understand them. This in turn allowed us to piece together the history we now know of ancient Egypt.

Working with an English physicist, Thomas Young, Champillon also determined that the use of a cartouche around a set of hieroglyphs denoted royalty.

In 1822 Jean Francois Champillon deciphered the hieroglyphs in conjuction with a language known to the Christian decendants of ancient Egyptians - Coptic. This took him to the conclusion that the hieroglyphs had phonetic properties, meaning they were more than just a written language - hieroglyphs were used in every day speach.