The ancient Eygptian Rosetta Stone is a document carved into black basalt stone that allowed modern researchers to decipher hieroglyphics, which was a lost form of writing. French soldiers under Napoleon Bonaparte's command stumbled onto the Rosetta Stone in 1799 in an Egyptian village called Rashid (Rosetta) while constructing a fortress.

Ancient Egyptian Languages and Scripts

The Rosetta Stone dates from 196 B.C. when ancient Egyptians used several different scripts, including the demotic and hieroglyphic scripts, to express their language. Additionally, after the Greek conquest of Egypt, the rulers conducted government business in Greek. The Rosetta Stone contains Greek, demotic and hieroglyphic scripts.

The Death of Hieroglyphics

Hieroglyphics, including the demotic script, slowly went extinct after the Romans conquered Egypt in 30 B.C.

Text of the Stone

Priests authored the text on the stone in praise of the pharaoh. They repeated the text three times: in demotic script, which was an everyday form of writing; in hieroglyphics, which priests used for important documents; and in Greek, which was the language of the ruler.

Translation

After the Rosetta Stone's discovery, scholars started comparing the Greek to the demotic and hieroglyphics scripts, resulting in the eventual translation of the stone and a basic understanding of hieroglyphics.

Significance

Because it was an extinct form of writing, no one had been able to translate hieroglyphics up until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

Source:

City Colleges of Chicago: The Rosetta Stone

Minnesota State University: The Story of the Rosetta Stone, "Finding a Lost Language"

More Information:

Fordham University: Translation of the Rosetta Stone