360The Rosetta Stone is found
On 15 July 1799, French soldiers rebuilding a fort near Rashid, known to Europeans as Rosetta, in Egypt, found a stone carved with the same decree in three scripts: hieroglyphs, demotic and ancient Greek. Because scholars could read the Greek, it became the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian writing, which Jean-François Champollion achieved in 1822.
For more than a thousand years, no one could read Egyptian hieroglyphs. The knowledge had been lost in late antiquity.
In July 1799, during a French military expedition to Egypt, soldiers found a large dark stone built into an old wall near the town of Rashid. An officer, Pierre-François Bouchard, realised it could be important.
The stone carried a decree from 196 BC, written three times: in hieroglyphs, in demotic, an everyday Egyptian script, and in ancient Greek. Scholars could read the Greek, so the stone offered a way to crack the other two.
After years of work by several scholars, including the Englishman Thomas Young, the French linguist Jean-François Champollion announced in 1822 that he had deciphered hieroglyphs. The stone is now displayed at the British Museum in London.
- 15 July 1799
- The stone is found
- 1802
- It arrives at the British Museum
- 1822
- Champollion deciphers hieroglyphs
Sources: British Museum · Britannica.