On the 15th July 1799, in the city of Rosetta, Egypt, a party of French soldiers were working to strengthen defences when they uncovered a very large dark grey slab of stone in the course of their duties. It was immediately recognised as potentially important, given the varied inscriptions on one side of the slab. The Officer in charge of the defence site, Lieutenant Pierre Francois Xavier Bouchard, identified three distinct scripts: one in Ancient Greek, one in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and the third in Egyptian Demotic script.
It quickly became apparent that the three inscriptions represented the same text in three different languages. Following translation of the Greek text it was revealed that the stone was an ancient decree commemorating Egyptian King Ptolemy V and was inscribed in his honour on 27th March 196 BC. Up until 1799, scholars and savants of the time had been unable to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, the discovery of what was
quickly named the ‘Rosetta Stone’ “provided the key to deciphering” (Adkins & Adkins, 2000, p.35) this unknown scripted language.
Today, the Rosetta Stone is a world-famous monument and is located at the British Museum in London where it was taken in 1802. It remains a symbol of translation, code deciphering, and as a key to learning new languages.
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