How Did the Rosetta Stone Help Egyptologists?
Read How Champollion Translated Ancient Egyptian Hieraglyphs
Apr 24, 2009
Up to 1799 there was nobody who could transcribe the hieroglyphic inscriptions found on ancient Egyptian monuments and papyri . Hieroglyphs are a phonetic script made up of symbols such as feathers, birds, scarab beetles, and snakes, which can be written left to right, right to left or vertically, with royal names being enclosed by a border known as a Cartouche.
Historical Setting - The Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon Bonaparte's campaigns took place between 1796 and 1815. At the time of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone Napoleon was not yet all powerful, although he was in command of the campaign on Egypt in 1799. His remit was to create a French stronghold from which to launch an attack on the British in India. Napoleon defeated the Mamalukes during the Battle of the Pyramids, 21st July 1798, successfully establishing a French power base.
Discovery of the Rosetta Stone
It was a French Army engineer Captain Pierre-François Xavier Bouchard, who is reputed to have discovered the stone sometime in mid-July 1799, while supervising construction work at Fort Julien near the Egyptian port city of Rashid (Rosetta). The discovery caused a huge stir amongst the French troups, even though they probably were not aware just how important the find would by for Egyptology.
After Napoleon returned to Francein 1799 (recalled to deal with local problems), 167 scholars remained behind with the French garrison. In March 1801, the British landed on Aboukir Bay and the scholars left carrying the Stone from Cairo to Alexandria. French troops in Cairo capitulated on June 22, and in Alexandria on August 30. After a brief stay at L'Institut D'Egypt in Cairo, the stone was taken to the British Museum in 1802.
What is the Rosetta Stone?
The Rosetta Stone is a black stone slab 114 x 72x 27 cm carved during the reign of Ptolomy V Epiphanes, and bearing a priestly inscription to commemorate the institution of a cult dedicated to the worship of the 13 year old pharoah in recognition for his generosity to the priesthood.
It bears the same inscription in two languages, Greek and ancient Egyptian. However the thing that makes the stone so crucial is the fact that the Egyptian inscription was written in both Demotic and Hieroglyphic texts.
Demotic or Hieroglyphs, One Language with Two Scripts
At the time of the Stone's creation there were three styles of script that had been used in Egypt. The first style (Demotic) was used by most people for day to day purposes such as letters, invoices or records. The second style (Hieroglyphic) was used for formal purposes such as inscriptions on buildings, on tombs or on official or religious documents. A third style, known as hieratic, was not on the Rosetta Stone as it had already fallen out of usage well before 196 B.C.
How Was the Rosetta Stone Decoded?
Thomas Young, an English physicist, was the first to prove that some of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone represented the sounds of the royal name Ptolemy. It took the genius of French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion to complete the task. Champollion had mastered Greek and Latin by the time he was 9 and he went on to study several other classical languages including Coptic.
Translating the Greek part of the inscription would have posed him no problems. It was his knowledge of the ancient Coptic language that helped him to translate the Demotic and Hieroglyphic scripts. The rest - as they say - is history.
To write like an ancient Egyptian, follow this link.
References
The Rosetta Stone, R.B.Parkinson, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714150215
Text of the Rosetta Stone, The Britiish Museum
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