The iconic shape of the Rosetta Stone is an accident. The top had already been partially broken off when French soldiers uncovered it more than 225 years ago. What remains appears to be the lower portion of a larger monument, but we do not know how much is missing.
Discovery of the Rosetta Stone
For centuries, the writing of the ancient Egyptians remained a great mystery until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. In 1799, French soldiers were building a fort near the Egyptian village of Rosetta. The soldiers unearthed a dark grey-pinkish stone about four feet tall and 2½ feet wide. The Rosetta Stone was inscribed in three languages. One language was Greek; the others were not yet understood Egyptian scripts. The Greek text described a law written in 196 BCE. Scholars presumed that the Greek writing might give clues to the meaning of the mysterious Egyptian symbols.
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From Egypt to the British Museum
After the Rosetta Stone’s discovery, the British seized Egypt in 1801 and transported the artifact to the British Museum. There, scholars carefully studied the scripts, but their work proceeded slowly because parts of the stone had crumbled.
Deciphering Hieroglyphics
Over time, scholars concluded that the law was written in three scripts: Greek, hieroglyphics, and demotic. Hieroglyphics was the sacred writing of ancient Egypt and was known only by the most learned priests. Demotic was a cursive script used by the Egyptians for informal writing.
French linguist Jean Champollion focused on royal names, such as Ptolemy and Cleopatra, enclosed in oval shapes called cartouches. By matching these names across the scripts, he showed that hieroglyphs could represent sounds, not just pictures—an insight that unlocked their meaning.
In 1822, a French linguist named Jean Champollion matched several characters from the three texts. Gradually, he deciphered the system of hieroglyphic writing. Champollion determined that hieroglyphics had originally been pictographs but later represented sounds. With Champollion’s key, the mysterious hieroglyphic text became readable, and in the years that followed, scholars explained many long-standing mysteries of ancient Egypt.
Modern Controversy
Since 2003, Egypt has formally requested that the British return the Rosetta Stone to its original home. The British Museum and other major museums, however, have argued that ancient artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone belong not to their home nation but to all of humanity.
Captured by British forces after the defeat of Napoleon’s army in Egypt, the stone has been in London since 1802. Its presence there remains controversial, with ongoing debates about whether it should be returned to Egypt.
