In the Time of the Rosetta Stone
By JASON URBANUS
Monday, October 16, 2017
The Rosetta Stone is inscribed with the Third Memphis Decree, written in three different scripts: Egyptian hieroglyphics (top), Egyptian Demotic (middle), and (bottom) Ancient Greek.
The Rosetta Stone is, inarguably, one of the most famous archaeological artifacts in the world. Shortly after it was uncovered by French Napoleonic troops in Egypt in 1799, it was seized by the British and transferred to the British Museum, where it has remained prominently on display for the past 200 years. The carved gray granodiorite stela is strikingly elegant, but the stone’s significance lies more in its tripartite inscription than in its aesthetics. The juxtaposition of the three passages, identical but for each having been written in a different script—Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian Demotic, and Ancient Greek—would prove to be key to solving the puzzle of deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/274-1711/features/5997-egypt-thmuis-rosetta-stone
