Celebrating the Rosetta Stone
Kenzy Fahmy
This year marks the bicentennial anniversary of Champollion’s translation of the Rosetta Stone, an event that finally allowed us to decipher the early texts and inscriptions left behind by the Egyptians. It has opened countless doors in the field of Egyptology, without which we almost certainly would not have been able to build the understanding we have today of our ancient counterparts.
The granite stele, dating back to 196 BCE, was first discovered in the northern city of Rosetta, known locally as Rashid, in 1799 by a French officer in Napoleon’s army, Pierre-Francois Bouchard. The French didn’t hold onto it for long though, and following their defeat at the hands of the British, all the antiquities they had collected were confiscated and sent back to England to be kept and displayed at the British Museum.
With three different scripts inscribed on it, the Rosetta Stone was the key to unlocking the ancient Egyptian language, and in turn, ancient Egypt’s secrets. The stone carries a decree issued in Memphis on behalf of Ptolemy V written in hieroglyphic, the language of priests and temples, Egyptian demotic script which was more for daily use, and ancient Greek, which was the administrative language under Hellenic rule. There were very minor differences between the three, and it was this unique combination that paved the way for all future translations of ancient Egyptian text.
While the stone was discovered in Rosetta, the common consensus is that it was most likely moved here from a temple in Sais, known now as Sa el-Hagar, another city in the Delta just south of Rosetta. The stele, first erected after the coronation of Ptolemy V, was far larger than what remains today, originally standing at an estimated height of around two meters.
Hieroglyphic writing died out some time around the 4th century and over time the ability to read it slowly faded away. Ancient Greek, however, remained in use long after the Egyptian languages were lost, and the Greek script was the first to be translated back in 1803. But it would be another 20 years before the rest of the stone could be deciphered; first needed to come the realization that the three texts said basically the same thing. What helped early translators figure this out was the name of the ruler the stele was dedicated to, Ptolemaios, which they were able to match to the phonetic symbols of the demotic script, and then to the pictorial hieroglyphs.
Countless scholars worked on solving the puzzle, including British physicist and Egyptologist Thomas Young, but it was Jean-Francois Champollion who was finally able to make the all-important breakthrough in 1822. The French philologist had been interested in Egyptian history and hieroglyphics since his youth, and he was one of the early proponents of the view that the ancient Egyptian language was closely related to Coptic, a point that would prove crucial to the later translation of the Rosetta scripts and one that was soon confirmed. Champollion was determined to be the first to decipher the hieroglyphic alphabet, dedicating years of his life to the study of the Coptic language, firm in his belief that the two were related.
He eventually was able to figure out that hieroglyphic script was a combination of ideographic (symbolic) and phonetic signs, after which he tried once more to translate to stone’s Egyptian text, starting with the names of the rulers. By doing this, Champollion managed to isolate different phonetic values associated with certain symbols, identifying 12 different signs at first, and after applying these to the rest of the script, he was able to decipher many more.
In September 1822, Champollion wrote a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Paris Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, reading it to an assembly of his peers, which included Thomas Young, and finally presented his findings to the world. It wasn’t until 1824 though that he actually published the first proper translation of hieroglyphic text and the key to the ancient Egyptian language, which he dedicated to Louis XVIII.
The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important archaeological artifacts of our time. Its discovery and translation did so much more than just allow us to once again to read ancient Egyptian script; it has made it possible for us to construct a more or less complete picture of the region’s ancient history. It has allowed us to connect a vast network of archaeological discoveries and chronologically organize our knowledge in order to better understand the stories of our ancestors.
Since its confiscation by the British in 1801, it has remained on display at the British Museum, along with many other ancient Egyptian artifacts. The Rosetta Stone has been moved only in very rare occasions since then, once during WWI, when it was feared that bombing over London could potentially cause irreparable damage, and more recently when it was moved to a new exhibition in celebration of its bicentennial anniversary.
Efforts have been made to have the stone returned to Egypt and there are a number of institutions and individuals fighting to reclaim it from the British. A new generation of scholars, archaeologists and heritage workers brings with it a deeper understanding of our colonial history and what it means to live in a post-colonial world. A global movement is taking place to bring the world’s artifacts back home, back to their place of origin, and the Rosetta Stone is an important part of that movement. Such an important piece of our ancient heritage, of our story, belongs here, alongside colossal granite statues and delicate fragments of papyrus. Two hundred years after its translation, the Rosetta Stone remains as important and as valuable to us as ever.