Rosetta Stone Essay
Rosetta Stone
- Kripa Marvadi
- 10/15/17
1. Historical background of discovery
- The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 in Rashid, Egypt by the French army. Specifically, it was found by Captain Bouchard, the French captain during the Napoleonic wars. The Rosetta Stone is a slab made of black basalt. Observing the image, the stone has an irregular shape and that it is missing corner parts on the top It weighs around 762 kg, and “approximately 3 feet 9 inches long, 2 feet 4 ½ inches wide, and 11 inches thick, bearing a bilingual inscription in Egyptian and Greek.” . The inscription on the stone contains three types of writing: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. It was written in 196 B.C. on the anniversary of King Ptolemy’s coronation. It was …show more content…
It helped decoding the ancient Egyptian writing system, hieroglyphs. According to an article on the “Mystery of the Rosetta Stone,” “Deciphering the stone was largely the work of two people, Thomas Young of England and Jean-Francois Champollion of France.” . Thomas Young had an interest in learning about Egypt, so he started studying the Rosetta Stone in 1814 A.D. He is not vastly credited for his work because he left the project without concluding it. But he did figure out the cartouche and deciphered the subject of the writing- Ptolemy. Then came Jean- Francois Champollion, a linguist and historian. He was also interested in taking the challenge of deciphering the Rosetta Stone. He used Young’s techniques and applied it to other cartouches. The decipherment of the stone helped archeologists translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. Since the decipherment of hieroglyphics was published, many archeologists and historians could decipher other Egyptian literature such as “papyrus scrolls from Middle Egyptian era, and hieroglyphs on the walls of Theban temples.” !!!! The Rosetta Stone was the most essential key to the modern knowledge of ancient Egyptian
- Kripa Marvadi
- 10/15/17
1. Historical background of discovery
- The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 in Rashid, Egypt by the French army. Specifically, it was found by Captain Bouchard, the French captain during the Napoleonic wars. The Rosetta Stone is a slab made of black basalt. Observing the image, the stone has an irregular shape and that it is missing corner parts on the top It weighs around 762 kg, and “approximately 3 feet 9 inches long, 2 feet 4 ½ inches wide, and 11 inches thick, bearing a bilingual inscription in Egyptian and Greek.” . The inscription on the stone contains three types of writing: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. It was written in 196 B.C. on the anniversary of King Ptolemy’s coronation. It was …show more content…
It helped decoding the ancient Egyptian writing system, hieroglyphs. According to an article on the “Mystery of the Rosetta Stone,” “Deciphering the stone was largely the work of two people, Thomas Young of England and Jean-Francois Champollion of France.” . Thomas Young had an interest in learning about Egypt, so he started studying the Rosetta Stone in 1814 A.D. He is not vastly credited for his work because he left the project without concluding it. But he did figure out the cartouche and deciphered the subject of the writing- Ptolemy. Then came Jean- Francois Champollion, a linguist and historian. He was also interested in taking the challenge of deciphering the Rosetta Stone. He used Young’s techniques and applied it to other cartouches. The decipherment of the stone helped archeologists translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. Since the decipherment of hieroglyphics was published, many archeologists and historians could decipher other Egyptian literature such as “papyrus scrolls from Middle Egyptian era, and hieroglyphs on the walls of Theban temples.” !!!! The Rosetta Stone was the most essential key to the modern knowledge of ancient Egyptian