Discovery

The Rosetta Stone is a black slab of basalt rock discovered by the French army under Napoleon's rule. While digging to add to a fort in the Nile Delta, near the city of el-Rashid, the army stumbled upon the stone.

Inscription

Inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone are used to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs, as the stone has texts written three languages: Demotic, Egyptian icons and a Greek translation. The Greek translation of the ancient written language allows Egyptologists the ability to decipher other texts where the hieroglyphs appear.

Use

Created in 196 B.C., the inscription on the stone served as documentation of a meeting of priests in celebration of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes' first anniversary in power. Honors bestowed upon the king by Egyptian temples are also listed on the stone in exceptional detail.

Priests

Additional text on the Rosetta Stone stone details the honors the king received as well as a intricate account of the economic privileges available to the priests.

Possession

Upon the signing of the treaty of Alexandria, the French army was forced to give the stone over to British officials. The Rosetta Stone was placed in the British Museum in London in and remains there today.

Source:

Egyptology Online: Rosetta Stone

Ancientegypt.com: The Rosetta Stone

British Museum: Rosetta Stone