Rosetta Stone
Key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a larger stele inscribed with a decree from 196 BC.[1][2] The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of black granodiorite that was catalogued as bearing three inscriptions when it was surrendered to British forces in 1801.[3]
Quick Facts
- Material
- Granodiorite
- Writing
- Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
- Demotic script
- and Greek script
- Created
- 196 BC
- Discovered date
- 1799
- Discovered place
- near Rosetta, Nile Delta, Egypt
- Discovered by
- Pierre-François Bouchard
- Location
- British Museum
Facts from the source article.
What happened
The stele was erected after the coronation of King Ptolemy V, recording a decree issued by a congress of priests at Memphis.[4] The decree dates to 27 March 196 BC, the ninth year of Ptolemy V's reign.[2] French soldiers under Colonel d'Hautpoul uncovered the stone in July 1799 while strengthening Fort Julien near Rosetta.[5] Lieutenant Pierre-François Bouchard spotted the inscribed slab and informed General Jacques-François Menou.[5]
The stone was placed in the British Museum in June 1802 and has been exhibited there almost continuously since.[6][7] Michel Ange Lancret reported the discovery to the Institut d'Égypte on 19 July.[5] In 1917, during the First World War, the stone was relocated to a station of the Postal Tube Railway at Mount Pleasant for safekeeping.[8]
What the cited sources add
Bevan's 1927 account describes the stone as black basalt and states it was discovered at Rosetta by the French in 1799.[9] Bevan notes that the decree was passed on Mechir 18 (27 March) 196 BC by a general synod of Egyptian priests at Memphis.[9] Bevan states that the stone provided the key that allowed Champollion to decipher the ancient language of Egypt in 1824.[9]
References
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Parkinson et al. (1999) p. 20 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clarysse and Van der Veken (1983) pp. 20–21; Parkinson et al. (1999) p. 29; Parkinson et al. (1999) p. 29; Shaw & Nicholson (1995) p. 247 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bierbrier (1999) pp. 111–113; Parkinson et al. (1999) p. 23; Synopsis (1847) pp. 113–114; Miller et al. (2000) pp. 128–132; Middleton and Klemm (2003) pp. 207–208 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Parkinson et al. (1999) p. 25 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Parkinson et al. (1999) pp. 17–20 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Andrews (1985) p. 12; Parkinson et al. (1999) p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The Rosetta Stone (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rosetta Stone" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone" (British Museum, 14 July 2017); Parkinson (2005) p. 47; Parkinson (2005) pp. 50–51 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Bevan (1927) pp. 263–268. facts only, no text reused. penelope.uchicago.edu
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Rosetta Stone (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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